ook me some few moments to undo. I noticed, as I worked at
it, that the deck was empty, except for the lanky man with the package,
who was now forward, apparently undoing his package on the forehatch. I
thought that he was a sort of pedlar or bumboatman, come to sell onions,
soft bread, or cheap jewellery to the sailors. The carpenter's head
showed for an instant at the galley-door, He was looking forward at the
pedlar. The hands were all down below in the forecastle, eating their
breakfast. The other stranger seemed to have gone. I could not see him
about the deck. At last the skylight came down with a clatter, leaving
me free to go below again. As I went down the hatchway, into the
'tweendecks gloom, I saw a figure apparently at work among the ship's
stores lashed to the deck there. I could not see who it was; it was
too dark for that but the thing seemed strange to me. I guessed that
it might be my enemy the boatswain, so I passed aft to the cabin on the
other side.

Soon after that, it might be ten minutes after, while the gentlemen were
talking lazily about going ashore, we heard loud shouts on deck.

"What's that?" said the captain, starting up from his chair.

"Sounds like fire," said Mr. Jermyn.

"Fire forward," said the captain, turning very white. "There's five tons
of powder forward."

"What?" cried the Duke.

At that instant we heard the boatswain roaring to the men to come on
deck. "Aft for the hose there, Bill," we heard. Feet rushed aft along
the deck, helter-skelter. Some one shoved the skylight open with a
violent heave. Looking up, we saw the carpenter's head. He looked as
scared as a man can be.

"On deck," he cried. "We're all in a blaze forward. The lamp in the
bo'sun's locker. Quick."

"Just over the powder," the captain said, rushing out.

"Quick, sir," said Jermyn to the Duke. "We may blow up at any moment."

"No," said the Duke, rising leisurely. "Not with these stars.
Impossible."

All the same, the two men followed the captain in pretty quick time. Mr.
Jermyn rushed the Duke out by the arm. I was rushing out, too, when I
saw the Duke's hat lying on the lockers. I darted at it, for I knew
that he would want it, with the result that my heel slipped on a copper
nail-head, which had been worn down even with the deck till it was
smooth as glass. Down I came, bang, with a jolt which shook me almost
sick. I rose up, stupid with the shock, so wretched with the present
pain that the fire