'Some man hab taken de fok'sle lamp into de forepeak, and hab by haccident set fire to de cargo by putting de lamp troo a hole in de bulkhead. For your God's sake let we out or we burn!'
'Is this a trick?' cried I to Abraham.
'Test it, sir!—test it by opening the main hatch!' he shouted.
Jacob had by this time joined us. In a few moments we had removed the battens and torn off the tarpaulin, but at the first rise of the after-hatch cover that we laid our hands upon up belched a volume of smoke, with so much more following that each man of us started back to catch his breath. Now could be plainly heard a noise of shrieking forward.
'My God! men, what shall we do?' I cried, almost paralyzed by this sudden confrontment of the direst peril that can befall humanity at sea, but rendered in our case inexpressibly more horrible yet, to my mind, by the existence of the pent-up wretches whom I felt, even in that moment of stupefying consternation, we dared not liberate while we remained on board.
'What's to be done?' cried Jacob, whose wits seemed less abroad than Abraham's. 'Ask yourself the question. The wessel's on fire, and we must leave if we ain't to be burnt.'
'What! leave the Malays to perish?' I exclaimed.
'Let's smother this smoke down first, anyways,' cried Abraham; and he and his mate put the hatch on.
'Helga,' I shouted, 'drop the wheel! Come to us here! The ship is on fire!'
She came running along the poop.