their faces for the first time in a fortnight, and had a
special dinner given them. They spoke of spontaneous combustion with
contempt, and implied _they_ were the boys to put out combustions.
Somehow we all felt as though we each had inherited a large fortune. But
a beastly smell of burning hung about the ship. Captain Beard had hollow
eyes and sunken cheeks. I had never noticed so much before how twisted
and bowed he was. He and Mahon prowled soberly about hatches and
ventilators, sniffing. It struck me suddenly poor Mahon was a very, very
old chap. As to me, I was as pleased and proud as though I had helped to
win a great naval battle. O! Youth!

"The night was fine. In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hull
down,--the first we had seen for months; but we were nearing the land at
last, Java Head being about 190 miles off, and nearly due north.

"Next day it was my watch on deck from eight to twelve. At breakfast the
captain observed, 'It's wonderful how that smell hangs about the cabin.'
About ten, the mate being on the poop, I stepped down on the main-deck
for a moment. The carpenter's bench stood abaft the mainmast: I leaned
against it sucking at my pipe, and the carpenter, a young chap, came to
talk to me. He remarked, 'I think we have done very well, haven't we?'
and then I perceived with annoyance the fool was trying to tilt the
bench. I said curtly, 'Don't, Chips,' and immediately became aware of a
queer sensation, of an absurd delusion,--I seemed somehow to be in
the air. I heard all round me like a pent-up breath released--as if
a thousand giants simultaneously had said Phoo!--and felt a dull
concussion which made my ribs ache suddenly. No doubt about it--I was
in the air, and my body was describing a short parabola. But short as
it was, I had the time to think several thoughts in, as far as I can
remember, the following order: 'This can't be the carpenter--What is
it?--Some accident--Submarine volcano?--Coals, gas!--By Jove! we are
being blown up--Everybody's dead--I am falling into the after-hatch--I
see fire in it.'

"The coal-dust suspended in the air of the hold had glowed dull-red
at the moment of the explosion. In the twinkling of an eye, in an
infinitesimal fraction of a second since the first tilt of the bench, I
was sprawling full length on the cargo. I picked myself up and scrambled
out. It was quick like a rebound. The deck was a wilderness of smashed
timber, lying crosswise like tree