ute had passed before he sang out to be hauled up again. When
he reappeared he was insensible, and it was some time before he
recovered. They brought him up to the forecastle close to me, and the
first words I heard which he uttered were: "She's all on fire below, and
I doubt if water will put it out."

This was very dreadful; and I began to consider whether I was fated to
be roasted and then drowned, when I saw my friend Silas Flint creeping
cautiously up to me. "Hillo, Peter, my lad, you seem to take it coolly
enough; but you shan't, if I can help it, be roasted like a lark on a
spit, so I've come to give you a chance for your life. I did not come
before, not because I had forgotten you, but because I knew that wicked
captain of ours was watching me, and would have prevented me from
setting you at liberty if he could: however, he's enough else, I guess,
to think of just now."

"Thank you, Flint--thank you for your kindness," I answered as he was
cutting the lanyards which confined me. "Do you think there is any
danger, though?"

"The ship may burn till she's too hot to hold us," he replied
laconically; "and then it is not easy to say where five hundred people
are to find standing-room. There is danger, Peter; but a stout heart
may face and overcome it."

"What do you propose to do?" I asked.

"Get into a boat if I can, or else build a raft and float on that. I'll
not go down as long as I can find something to keep me up."

Flint's calmness gave me courage; and after that, notwithstanding the
dreadful scenes I witnessed, I did not feel any fear. As soon as I was
at liberty, I set to work with Flint to make myself useful; and though I
was close to Captain Swales while we were working the pump, he did not
observe me. An event of the sort I am describing shows people in their
true colours. While some of the passengers threw off their jackets and
set to with a will, several had cast themselves on the deck, weeping and
groaning among the women; and Flint and one of the mates had actually to
go and kick them up before they would attempt to perform their duty.

It is difficult to describe the horrors of that night, or rather
morning, before the day broke--the ship rolling and pitching on before a
heavy sea (whither she went no one considered, provided she was kept
before the wind)--the suffocating smoke which rose from the depths of
the hold--the cries of despair heard on every side--the scenes of
cowardly