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“Do it from here,” he said.”That deck’s not safe. What’s the matter?” he demanded the next instant.”We’re standing still.”

McCoy smiled.

“You are bucking a seven-knot current, Captain,” he said.”That is the way the full ebb runs out of this passage.”

At the end of another hour the Pyreneeshad scarcely gained her length, but the wind freshened and she began to forge ahead.

“Better get into the boats, some of you,” Captain Davenport commanded.

His voice was still ringing, and the men were just beginning to move in obedience, when the amidship deck of the Pyrenees, in a mass of flame and smoke, was flung upward into the sails and rigging, part of it remaining there and the rest falling into the sea. The wind being abeam, was what had saved the men crowded aft. They made a blind rush to gain the boats, but McCoy’s voice, carrying its convin
cing message of vast calm and endless time, stopped them.

“Take it easy,” he was saying. Everything is all right. Pass that boy down somebody, please.”

The man at the wheel had forsaken it in a funk, and Captain Davenport had leaped and caught the spokes in time to prevent the ship from yawing in the current and going ashore.

“Better take charge of the boats,” he said to Mr. Konig.”Tow one of them short, right under the quarter…. When I go over, it’ll be on the jump.”

Mr. Konig hesitated, then went over the rail and lowered himself into the boat.

“Keep her off half a point, Captain.”

Captain Davenport gave a start. He had thought he had the ship to himself.

“Ay, ay; half a point it is,” he answered.

Amidships the Pyreneeswas an open flaming furnace, out of which poured an immense volume of smoke which rose high above the masts and completely hid the forward part of the ship. McCoy, in the shelter of the mizzen-shrouds, continued his difficult task of conning the ship through the intricate channel. The fire was working aft along the deck from the seat of explosion, while the soaring tower of canvas on the mainmast went up and vanished in a sheet of flame. Forward, though they could not see them, they knew that the head-sails were still drawing.

“If only she don’t burn all her canvas off before she makes inside,:” the captain groaned.

“She’ll make it,” McCoy assured him with supreme confidence.”There is plenty of time. She is bound to make it. And once inside, we’ll put her before it; that will keep the smoke away from us and hold back the fire from working aft.”

A tongue of flame sprang up the mizzen, reached hungrily for the lowest tier of canvas, missed it, and vanished. From aloft a burning shred of rope stuff fell square on the back of Captain Davenport’s neck. He acted with the celerity of one stung by a bee as he reached up and brushed the offending fire from his skin.

“How is she heading, Captain?”

“Nor’west by west.”

“Keep her west-nor-west.”

Captain Davenport put the wheel up and steadied her.

“West by north, Captain.”

“West by north she is.”

“And now west.”

Slowly, point by point, as she entered the lagoon, the Pyreneesdescribed the circle that put her before the wind; and point by point, with all the calm certitude of a thousand years of time to spare, McCoy chanted the changing course.

“Another point, Captain.”

“A point it is.”

Captain Davenport whirled several spokes over, suddenly reversing and coming back one to check her.

“Steady.”

“Steady she is—right on it.”

Despite the fact that the wind was now astern, the heat was so intense that Captain Davenport was compelled to steal sidelong glances into the binnacle, letting go the wheel now with one hand, now with the other, to rub or shield his blistering cheeks.