comed
an' told me quietly, instead of skearin' everybody into a blue funk!"
snapped out Captain Snaggs, dancing about on his spindleshank legs like
a pea on a hot griddle, and dodging the smoke as it puffed in his face,
while peering forward to see whence it came. "Hev any of yer chaps ben
down below to prospect whaar the durned thing is?"

"It vas in ze forepeak, cap'n," said Jan Steenbock, in response to this
question. "I vas zee it meinselfs."

"Is the hose ready?"

"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted back a score of voices, all hands being now on
deck and every one forward, save the helmsman and steward--the latter,
no doubt, snoozing away comfortably in his bunk, and not troubling
himself about the disturbance, thinking, if he thought at all, that the
call of the first-mate was only probably to shorten sail, in which case
he might just as well remain where he was. "The hose is rigged and the
head-pump manned, sir."

"Then let her rip!" shouted the skipper. "Go it, my hearties, an' flood
it out. I've hed nary a fire aboard my ship afore; an' I don't want to
be burnt out now, I reckon, with all them dry goods an' notions below,
by thunder! Put your back into it, ye lubbers, an' let her rip, I tell
ye; she's all oak!"

One party of men attended to the pump, Jan Steenbock directing the end
of the hose down the half-opened hatch, the lid having been partly
slipped off by some one. The captain ranged the rest along the gangway,
passing the buckets; and these a couple of others standing in the
forechains dipped in the sea, hauling them up when full and handing them
to those nearest, the skipper clutching hold when they reached him and
chucking their contents down below.

The smoke in a minute or two perceptibly diminished in volume; and,
presently, only a thin spiral wreath faintly stole up, in lieu of the
thick clouds that had previously almost stifled us.

A wild hurrah of triumph burst from the crew; and the second-mate was
just about descending into the forepeak, to get nearer the fire and see
whether it had been thoroughly put out, when the entire cover of the
hatchway was suddenly thrown violently off, and the dripping head and
shoulders of a man appearing right under his very nose startled Jan
Steenbock so much that he tumbled backward on the deck, although,
impassive as usual, he did not utter a cry.

The captain did though.

"By the jumping Jehosophat!" he yelled out, also hopping back
precipitately, with