ere
the glow rises. As he says, we want all our strength there, and you can
serve us better here."

I seized the brass nozzle and held it ready.

"Be careful," cried Mr Brymer. "Keep back so that the fumes don't
overcome you, and call out if you want help."

I nodded, and he hurried forward, while as I stood there in the hot
sunshine waiting for the water to come, I directed the nozzle so as to
strike one particular part of the smouldering ruins just beside where
the great spiral of smoke rose up.

The next minute clink-clank came the strokes of the double-handled pump,
invisible to me, for it was on the far side of the smoke which rose from
the forward part of the deck. But no water came, and after a minute or
two I heard them talking loudly, and the clanking ceased. Then came the
splash of a bucket over the side, and though I could see nothing, I
could picture the throwing down of that bucket, and the handing of it up
with the sparkling of the water as it streamed back; and I knew what the
gurgling and splashing meant, as the contents freshly drawn were poured
into the top of the pump.

Then the clanking began again, and I waited listening to the steady
working up and down of the handles, and the strange, gasping, sucking
sounds which rose hollowly from the piston.

But still no water came, and I listened to the splash of the bucket as
the process of filling the big barrel of the pump was repeated. Then
clang-clank again, with gurgling, hissing, and splashing; and I felt
that the pump must be broken or worn-out.

"They will have to take to the buckets," I said half-aloud; and in fancy
I saw what a slow, laborious task that would be, and how hopeless it was
to imagine that, short-handed as we were, we could cope with that
terrible fire steadily eating its way down through the cargo, and which
would certainly before long burst forth with uncontrollable fury.

"It's all over," I said to myself; and my heart sank once more as I
began to think that we ought before long to get back to the boat, and
trust to it alone, for although open and comparatively frail, it would
not have a terrible enemy on board, insidiously waiting to destroy us.

"Oh, how disappointing!" I muttered, as I passed the metal nozzle from
my right to my left hand, so as to wipe the perspiration from my face,
when all at once there was a quick, throbbing sensation; something ran
through my left hand. There was a splash, a hiss, and a cry,