"She's coming!" cried the operator, as he gave the dispatch to the captain. Russ, who had enough of the pictures of Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed leaving in the boat, filmed the captain in the act of receiving this message of good cheer. Later it was worked into a stirring drama, called "The Burning Ship."

With all else that was going on, the work of fighting the blaze in the hold was not for a moment given up. Water and live steam were turned in among the cargo, the pumping apparatus fortunately not having been disabled when the rest of the machinery went out of commission.

Russ made more moving pictures, since he now had a good light, and as the fire-fighting was in another part of the ship it made a different series of views.

"Oh, isn't this the most awful thing you ever saw, or heard of?" cried Miss Pennington, coming on deck where Ruth and Alice stood. "Fate seems to be against us at every turn!"

She was very pale, and looked wretched, as did her chum Miss Dixon.

"I guess they didn't take time to make up their complexions," whispered Alice.

"Hush!" cautioned her sister.

"I could cry!" declared Miss Dixon. "I never slept a wink all night." She looked it, too.

"Oh, we'll be all right," said Paul. "The other ship is coming for us, and if necessary we can be transferred to her."

"Will we have to go in one of the small boats, like that?" Miss Pennington wanted to know, as she pointed to the one in which were Mr.

Bunn and Mr. Sneed, some distance off, now.

"That's the only kind they have on board," said Mr. DeVere, who had shortly before joined his daughters.

"Oh, I never could go in one of those--never!" the former vaudeville actress cried, tragically.

"Ha! Dose is goot boats! I in der German nafy vos," put in Mr. Switzer, "und dey are fery safe."

"Oh, but they look so small, and they hold so little. How can one get enough to eat in them?" asked Miss Dixon, clasping her hands, and looking with her rather effective eyes, first at Mr. Towne, and then at Paul.

"Ha! You dakes along vot you eat!" exclaimed the German. "Pretzels iss fine! Haf one!" and he extended a handful of small ones. Since the company had been s...o...b..und he had always a few in his pocket. He called them his "mascots."

"No, thank you. I never eat them!" declared Miss Dixon, with turned-up nose.

"Let's go see if there is any further report by wireless from the _Bell_," suggested Ruth, who saw kindling wrath in the eyes of her sister. Alice never could get along well with the two actresses, and she was very likely to say something that might lead to a quarrel.

"I'll come along," said Paul.

"So will I," echoed Mr. Towne. In spite of his affected mannerisms, he could be "nice," at times. It was Ruth who had said this, but then Ruth had such a kind heart that she generally found a good quality in nearly everyone, whatever their failings.

"Yes, she's coming on at full speed," reported the wireless operator.

"She'll be with us in about an hour, now. And I guess it's time, too," he added in a low voice.

"Why?" asked Russ, when the girls had pa.s.sed on.

"Because I believe the fire is gaining. I think it's in one of the coal bunkers now, and that means it will burn steadily, and may eat through the side of the ship."

The operator turned to his apparatus, for he had been told to keep in constant communication with the oncoming rescue ship.

As Paul rejoined the girls, there sounded through the _Tarsus_ a dull explosion, that made the ship tremble.

The commander was hurrying along the deck. Many of the pa.s.sengers, who had gone below to pack their belongings in antic.i.p.ation of being transferred, now came rushing out of their staterooms.

"What was it?"

"Are we going to blow up?"

"Is the ship sinking?"

"Don't be alarmed!" Captain Falcon exhorted them, but, even as he spoke, there came a second dull rumbling, a trembling of the vessel, and another explosion, louder than the first. There were screams from frightened women and children, and a number of men pa.s.sengers made a rush for the boats, as the sailors had done before.

CHAPTER VII

IN PORT

"Stand back!" cried Captain Falcon, and again his hand went to his pocket as though to draw a weapon. "Stand back! The same rule applies to you men pa.s.sengers as to the sailors. Women and children first! Do you hear?

Stand back!"

The rush was halted almost before it started. Then Mr. Switzer, who had taken no part in it, said slowly:

"Dot is right. Gentlemen, ve are forgetting ourselves!"

"And it took him--above everyone else--to remind them of it," said Mr.

DeVere in a low voice. He had remained by the side of his daughters.

"Mr. Switzer is a bigger man than any of us thought," murmured Ruth. "Oh, Daddy, is the boat going to sink?"

"We are going to be blown up!" exclaimed a big man, who, with others, had made a half start for the boat, and then had hung back shamefacedly.

"If you say that again!" cried Paul, in a fierce whisper, "I'll throw you overboard! This is no time to start a panic!"

The man slunk away. There came another explosion, not so loud as the first, but enough to cause the men to start involuntarily, and to bring frantic screams from the women pa.s.sengers.

"What is that, Captain?" asked Mr. Pertell.

"Nothing to be alarmed about," was the calm answer.

"They sound alarming enough," declared a woman.

"But they are not," the commander insisted. "They are only slight explosions of coal gas in some of the bunkers. The fire is slowly eating into them but the explosions are not heavy enough to cause any serious damage to the ship.

"The _Bell_ will soon be up to us. In fact, we could see her now, were it not for the slight haze. And, as it is evident that you will have to be taken off in her, I am going to lower the boats, and let you row away from this ship.

"You will be picked up by the _Bell_ as soon as she gets here, and, in any event, you would have to take to the small boats. So you might as well start. I will have all your baggage brought on deck ready for transfer," he added to the moving picture manager.

"Very good," a.s.sented Mr. Pertell. "I am sorry this has occurred, but perhaps it is best that we leave the ship."