I peeped over the rail and saw the boats—three of them—about a mile distant. Then Slade and I ran below aft. The two passengers had apparently gone with them, and the cabin was empty. Gantline, with Oleson and six men left alive aboard, fought the fire, and we joined them.
Half an hour's work and we had the fire out, but it had played the mischief with the running gear, having burned up plenty of line that lay on the deck. Oleson and Slade went below forward, while Gantline and I went after to find where they had knocked holes in her bottom.
The sound of rushing water told us the position of the leak almost before we reached the lower deck. They had not done much of a job, having cut squarely into her just below the water line, trusting to the fire to finish their work for them.
Calling all hands, we jammed a mattress into the hole, and then passed a tarpaulin down on the outside. Oleson spiked planks over the wad, and we had a fair stopper on the place. Then we set to work to get the canvas on her.
Yellow Dog, finding that the schooner was not burning quickly, put back in his boat to see what the trouble was. We were then at the gear, and he soon saw us. His men sent the boat along with a will, and they drew close aboard in a few minutes.
We were now without arms, and he seemed to be satisfied that he would get us without trouble. It was blowing fresh, and the schooner was drifting bodily to leeward.
We crammed the oil-soaked stuff from her decks into the donkey boiler, and as the fire was already burning, and steam was almost up, we waited, while some of us hoisted the headsails and swung her head off before the wind. The mizzen was swayed up, and in a few minutes the schooner was under good headway, sliding along at four or five knots, and keeping the boat at a distance.
"Now, then, my hearty, we'll soon fix you," said Gantline.
Between moments of desperate work we had a chance to see that the other boats were also coming back after us. At the present rate we were holding our own, and Yellow Dog stood no chance to catch us, but he kept on, and managed to get within a couple of hundred yards.
From here he opened fire upon us with the heavy six-shooters, and we heard the spat of the lead in the canvas, but for ourselves we kept below the rail, and the power of a revolver was not enough to bother us exceedingly.