he promenade-deck down to the very bottom
of the vessel. The engineer gallantly extended his hand to assist Grace,
and Professor Hanson, not quite sure himself of his footing, made a
pretense of rendering similar service to Mrs. Stuart. Mr. Fitzhugh
brought up the rear, stepping gingerly. Down they went, round and round,
threading their way along an amazing labyrinth of valves, levers,
gauges, eccentrics, tubes, and steam-pipes. They were now deep down in
the bowels of the ship, a region with a sickening smell of machine-oil
and steam. Down, down they went, past the coal-bunkers, following the
engineer. The stairway being only imperfectly lighted by electric bulbs,
they had to tread carefully. It grew perceptibly hotter. Presently they
saw double rows of boilers set sideways. They were in the stoke-hold.

"Look out!"

The warning cry came from Mr. Wetherbee, who stopped short and held out
his arms to prevent the visitors proceeding any farther. Then he
shouted: "There are the furnaces! You'd better shade your eyes!"

There was a sudden glare which was almost blinding, a roar of flames
under forced draught, and a wave of sickening heat. The air all at once
became so thick with flying particles of coal that it was difficult to
breathe. Choking, coughing, Grace and her companions clutched nervously
at the slender guard-rail which alone interposed between the steel
gallery where they stood and the inferno of smell, noise, and heat
below.

An extraordinary spectacle presented itself to their eyes. In the
blackness underneath, between the rows of boilers, were the
stoking-pits, in which fourteen fires, each raging at a fierce white
heat, glowed angrily like the red cavernous maws of legendary monsters.
Through the open furnace doors issued a blinding light that only
intensified the surrounding gloom. Standing about, recoiling from the
withering heat, could be seen a dozen stalwart forms. Every now and then
they advanced quickly to the furnace, to throw on fresh fuel or to rake
the glowing coal, and in the vivid light they were seen to be human
beings, but so begrimed and terrible of aspect as to be well-nigh
unrecognizable as men. They were entirely naked from the waist up, and
so covered with coal-dust from head to heel that they looked like
negroes. Only the white circles around the bloodshot eyes and their
straight hair betrayed the true color of their skins. They worked
silently and resignedly, like men accursed, and