all hands!" I said, with energy. "Tell the engineer to stir up
the fires."

Washburn hastened to execute the orders, and the rest of us watched
with increasing wonder the floating mass, which was every moment
increasing its distance from us.

"I say, Captain Alick, can you tell me what all that means?" asked Owen
Garningham. "Was the Islander going into that house to spend the
night?"

"I really can't say whether she was or not; but it is not likely that
the steamer went on shore for a night's lodging in the building," I
replied.

"I dare say the Islander could not handle herself very well on the
land, if she found any land to get on," added Owen.

"It is more likely that the house, or whatever it is, was afloat when
the Islander knocked for admission," I continued.

"If the steamer knocked, the house appears to have opened to her."

"How is your steam, Moses?" I called through the tube to the engineer.

"Rather low for working in this current," came back to me through the
tube.

At that moment the Islander whistled again. I pulled our whistle line,
and found we had steam enough to give a smart reply; but I was not
willing to trust the Sylvania to the rapid river without a full head of
steam. I lighted another Bengola. In its glare I saw that the other
steamer was backing her screw, as probably she had been doing from the
beginning. I judged that the building was about fifty feet long, and,
as it was partly submerged, it presented a large broadside to the rapid
current.

"I don't see how she got into that scrape, unless she was looking for a
night's lodging," said Washburn. "That building is big enough to be
seen in the dark."

"Of course Captain Blastblow did not intend to run into it," I added.
"Probably he had not time to get out of the way when he first saw it."

"But it seems to me I should not go far with such a load before I shook
it off."

"But don't you see that he can't pull out of the house?" demanded Owen.
"He is stuck fast in her side."

"They have axes on board the Islander; and I don't think it would take
our crew long to cut her out of that hole," added Washburn. "Why does
she keep whistling? Her captain can imagine that we have not steam
enough to work the Sylvania in such a current."

"I say, Washy, have you ever been down the Danube?" asked Owen.

"I never have been. I was never in Europe," replied the mate.

"I should say this current is quite as swift as that of the Danube at