ciously, but without result. The coxswain at the
wheel looked up quickly and then shouted an order to a deck hand, who
lowered himself down the tiny man-hole in the deck leading to the
engine-room. A few seconds later the second engineer appeared at the top
of the fo'c'sle hatch and, ducking to avoid a heavy shower of spray,
scrambled aft and peered down the man-hole, from which blue fumes,
somewhat thicker and more pungent than usual, were rising. The next
instant he too disappeared below.

The air officers were trying to get into communication with the rapidly
sinking airship by means of the powerful Morse lamp, but without result,
and one of them put his head into the wheel-house and asked anxiously if
more speed was possible.

Just then the second engineer and one of the crew crawled out of the
man-hole, pulling a limp figure behind them. The C.O. turned to
ascertain what had happened, and the men, very white and shaky,
explained in a few gasps that they had found the chief engineer
senseless at the bottom of the iron ladder leading up to the deck, and
had themselves been nearly gassed by the petrol fumes.

Glancing at the blue vapour now pouring up the hatchway and out of the
ventilators, the C.O. realised the risk of fire and explosion he ran by
carrying on at such high speed, but he also knew that men were drowning
in the sea some eight miles ahead, and that the few extra knots might
make the difference between life and death for them.

That the risk must be taken was a foregone conclusion, but how to keep
the engines running at that high speed without attention--for it was
evident that no man could live for many minutes in the poisonous
fumes--was a more difficult problem. This was solved, however, by the
second engineer volunteering to go below with a life-line attached, so
that he could be hauled up to the deck when giddiness came on. More than
once this gallant petty officer had to be pulled up choking and
exhausted. He risked instant death from the explosion of the gas from
the leaking and overheated pipes and engines, as well as suffocation
from the fumes, but he stuck to his post, returning again and again into
the poisonous atmosphere.

Darkness was gradually settling over the sea, and the flickering light
of the Morse lamp--still asking for a reply--made yellow streaks on the
wet fore-deck. Presently a faint speck of light blinked amid the dark
mass of the airship, but almost instantly went out, and