oin' in now pretty lively--all the pumps at work--the
light stuff bein' heaved overboard as fast as it came out. By dark we'd
got the fire under so that we had steam where before we'd had smoke and
flame. The passengers had quieted down and some of 'em had gone back to
their staterooms to get their things together, and everything was going
quiet and peaceable--this was about nine o'clock--when there came
another half-smothered explosion and the stokers began crawlin' up like
rats. Then the chief engineer stumbled out--no hat nor coat, his head
all blood where a flying bolt had gashed him. Some of her bilge plates
was loose, he said, and the water half up to the fire-boxes. Next a
column of flame came pouring out of her companionway, which crisped up
four of our boats and drove everybody for'ard. We knew then it was all
up with us.

"The captain now sent every man to the boats--those that would
float--and we began to get the passengers and crew together--about
sixty, all told. That's pretty nasty business at any time. They're like
a flock of sheep, huddlin' together, some wantin' to stay and some
crazy to go; or they are shiverin' with fright and ready to knife each
other--anything to get ahead or back or wherever they think it is
safest. This time most of 'em had got on to the explosives; they knew
something was up, either with the boilers or the cargo, and every one
of them expected to be blown up any minute.

"I stood by the rail, of course, and had told off the men I could
trust, puttin' 'em in two lines to let 'em through one at a time, women
first, then the old men, and so on--same old story; you've seen it, no
doubt--and had got four boats overboard and filled--the sea was pretty
calm--and three of 'em away and out of range of fallin' pieces if she
did take a notion to let go suddenly, when the dog sprang out of the
door at the top of the stairs leading down to the main deck, barkin'
like mad, runnin' up to the captain, who stood just behind me, pullin'
at his trousers, and runnin' back again. Then a yell came from the boat
below that one of the old women was missing: it was her sister. One
half-crazy man said she'd jumped overboard--he was crowdin' up to the
rail and didn't want to stop for anything--and another said she had
gone off in the first boat, which I knew was a lie.

"'Have you sent them both down?' asked Captain Bogart.

"'No, sir; only one,' I said--and I hadn't.

"Just then a steward stepped up