CHAPTER XIX
Blown Up
To play the part of a bold hero, I suppose I ought to have made a dash for the burning train and put out the fire. But I did nothing of the kind--I simply stood still and watched with horror-stricken eyes the dim glimmer of the fuse. Even had I had the presence of mind and the courage to make the attempt, the ordering of the barrels would have prevented me, for the train was laid 'twixt tiers standing so close together that there was scarce a hand's width between their bulging sides.
Already I regarded myself as doomed to die a swift and terrible death, but remembering my comrades in the boat, I backed away from the hatchway. I tried to raise a warning shout, but not a sound save a feeble gurgle could I utter. My tongue clave to the roof of my parched mouth, while my heart beat like a sledge-hammer.
Dipping my hand in the water that flooded the floor of the hold, I moistened my lips, then--
"Push off, men!" I shouted. "A fuse!"
The effect of my warning was instantly plain. The man who had accompanied me on deck leapt into the long-boat, and I heard the scraping of their oars as the crew pushed off with feverish haste.
Now that I look back upon this matter, I can scarce blame them. They acted according to my orders, combined with the thought of self-preservation. Doubtless in their panic they knew not whether one or two persons had leapt from the ship's bulwarks into the boat. But be that as it may, they rowed off with all their might and left me to my fate--and a hideous one at that.
Yet, as the explosion had not taken place, I gathered courage, and seizing the rope by which I had descended into the hold, I began to swarm up it. Suddenly, although it had appeared sound and had borne my weight before, it parted like pack thread, and I fell on my back in the hold, where the water broke my fall.
I was on my feet in an instant, now alert to take every possible chance of saving myself, and seeing a shaft of light in the dim recesses of the after hold, I waded down the sloping planks till the water rose to my shoulders.