With a popping and sizzling, the roast came alight, and now the panicky Mr. Briggs lunged for the roasting pan to remove it from danger. But all he succeeded in doing was to overturn a pan of grease, into which, in terror, he dropped the flaming roast.
In an instant, Cookie’s beloved galley had become a roaring caldron of flames.
“Fire!” he shrieked, and charged blindly into the passageway, covering his face with his hands.
“Fire! Fire! All hands on deck! Captain, Captain—come quick! Those blasted boys of Kennedy’s have set the ship on fire!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Fire!
For a split second, Sandy and Jerry stood rooted in helpless anger.
It was bad enough that the drunken, clumsy mate had set the galley ablaze. But now he had shifted the blame to them! The injustice of it was an outrage, and for the space of that split second, the two youths were so stunned that they could not move.
Then they sprang into action.
And to Jerry James’s amazement, Sandy Steele turned and ran from the flaming room.
“Sandy!” Jerry called. “Sandy, come back!”