"But I think we'll be able to hold her down if we get plenty of steam.

Come on up, men," he added, and the sailors scrambled up. They looked more like colored, than white men.

Captain Wiggs acted quickly. When the last man was up, the hatches, or coverings to the hold, were fastened down, and tarpaulins, wet with water, to make them air tight, were spread over the top. Then, from pipes which ran into the hold from below, and which were for use in emergency, jets of live steam were blown into the compartment.

This, the commander knew, would penetrate to every nook and corner, reaching where water could not, and would soon quench the flames.

"Now, all we can do is to wait," said the captain, as he sat down, for he was almost exhausted.

That was the hardest part of all. When one can be busy at something, getting out of danger, or fighting a fire that can be seen, the nervous fear is swallowed up in action. But to sit and wait--wait for the unseen steam to do its work,--that was very trying.

Still there was no help for it. Captain Wiggs looked to the other part of the cargo, seeing that there was no danger of that taking fire. The forward hold was separated from the others by thick bulkheads, and there was little chance of the fire breaking through. The hull of the _Modoc_ was of steel, and, provided the fire did not get hot enough to warp any of the plates, there was small danger to the ship itself.

"We'll have to head for sh.o.r.e, in case it becomes necessary to break out the cargo," decided the captain, as he went on deck. "Come on, boys. We can do nothing now, and we want to get some of this smoke out of our lungs."

The course of the ship was changed. Captain Wiggs got out his charts and looked them over.

"Where will we land?" asked Fenn.

"Not much of anywhere," was the reply. "There is no good harbor this side of Duluth, but I've got to do the best I can. There is a little bay, about opposite here. There's no settlement near it, but I understand there's a good sh.o.r.e, and I'm going to make for it, in case this fire gets beyond my control."

Urged on by all the steam the engines could take, though much was needed for the fire, the vessel plowed ahead.

"Land ho!" called the lookout, and the captain, taking an observation, announced they were close to the bay of which he had spoken. When it was reached it was found to be a secluded harbor, with nothing in sight on the sh.o.r.es of it save a few old huts, that appeared to be deserted.

"Not a very lively place," commented the captain. "Still, it will do all right if we have to land the cargo."

The anchor was dropped and then all there was to do was to wait for the fire to be extinguished.

The boys remained on deck, looking at the scenery about them. Back of the bay, rising almost from the edge of the water, were a series of steep cliffs, of bare rock for the most part, but studded, here and there, with clumps of bushes and small trees, that somehow, found a lodgement for their roots on little ledges.

"It's a lonesome sort of place," remarked Fenn. "Not a soul within sight."

Hardly had he spoken than there was seen on the face of the cliff, as if by a trick, the figure of a man. He seemed to come out, as does a magic-lantern picture on a sheet, so quickly did he appear where, before, there had been nothing but bare brown rock.

"Look!" exclaimed Fenn, pointing.

"A Chinaman!" exclaimed Bart. "One of the smugglers!"

The boys jumped to their feet, and approached closer to the ship's rail, to get a better view.

As they did so the Chinese vanished as though the cliff wall had opened and swallowed him up.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN EXPLORING PARTY

"Well, what do you think of that?" asked Fenn, in surprised accents.

"Did he fall down?"

"Doesn't look so," answered Frank. "I wonder if we really saw him, or whether it was a sort of day dream?"

"Oh, we saw him all right enough," said Bart. "He looked to me just like the Chinaman we saw in the woods that day."

"Just what I was going to remark," put in Ned. "I wonder if there are any more men up on that cliff?"

"What's the matter, boys?" asked Captain Wiggs, approaching at this juncture. They told him what they had seen.

"I don't see anything very surprising in that," replied the commander.

"Probably he has a laundry up there, and he was out looking for customers." And the commander winked at the other chums, who joined in a laugh at Fenn.

"That's all right," announced the discomfited one. "But I'll wager there's something queer back of all this. Do you know anything about this locality, captain?"

"Not a thing, and I wish I knew less. I'd never be here if it wasn't for the fire. And I must take a look now, and see how our steam bath is affecting it. I guess--"

"Look there!" suddenly cried Fenn, pointing to the cliff, at the base of which the lake waves were breaking.

They all looked. There, on the face of the wall of rock, apparently supported by nothing, stood four men, two of whom were Chinese, dressed in the characteristic costume of that nation. The others were white men.

They were close together, near a little clump of bushes, that sprang slantingly out from the surface of the cliff.

"More of 'em, eh?" murmured the captain. "I wonder if they'll answer a hail?"

He put his hands, trumpet fashion, to his mouth, and was about to call out, when a surprising thing happened.

As the boys watched the men seemed to grow suddenly smaller. They fairly went down out of sight, vanishing as completely as though they had sank into the cliff.

"Well, I never saw such a queer thing!" exclaimed Ned. "They acted just like a Jack in the Box, when some one shuts the lid."

"That expresses it exactly," admitted the captain. "It is a queer thing.

I think it will bear looking into. I wonder if they haven't something to do with the Chinese smugglers."

"That's what we thought."

"I believe I'll go ash.o.r.e and have a look," decided the commander of the _Modoc_. "The government detectives ought to be told of what's going on out here in this lonely place."

Captain Wiggs would have carried his plan out, but for the fact that an inspection of the hold showed the fire in the cargo to be smothered. The steam had done the work effectively and there was no more danger.

Instead of having to remain in the secluded bay for some time, ready at any moment, when danger threatened, to break out the cargo, the commander found himself able to proceed to Duluth.

This he decided on doing at once, as the exact extent of the fire-damage could not be ascertained until he reached a port where he could unload.

Accordingly all plans of making any examination of the strange actions of the queer men were abandoned and, steam having been gotten up in the main boilers, the engines were started and the _Modoc_ was once more under way.

As they left the little bay the boys kept close watch of the cliff, but there were no signs of life upon the brown wall of rock. If the men were somewhere within a cave on its surface, they did not show themselves.

"I wonder if we'll ever solve that mystery?" inquired Bart, of no one in particular, as the four chums paced the deck.