"Conrad, Josph - Youth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Conrad Joseph)

"We fought the fire and sailed the ship too as carefully
as though nothing had been the matter. The steward
cooked and attended on us. Of the other twelve men,
eight worked while four rested. Everyone took his
turn, captain included. There was equality, and if not
exactly fraternity, then a deal of good feeling. Some-
times a man, as he dashed a bucketful of water down the
hatchway, would yell out, 'Hurrah for Bankok!' and the
rest laughed. But generally we were taciturn and seri-
ous--and thirsty. Oh! how thirsty! And we had to be
careful with the water. Strict allowance. The ship
smoked, the sun blazed. . . . Pass the bottle.

"We tried everything. We even made an attempt to
dig down to the fire. No good, of course. No man
could remain more than a minute below. Mahon, who
went first, fainted there, and the man who went to fetch
him out did likewise. We lugged them out on deck.
Then I leaped down to show how easily it could be done.
They had learned wisdom by that time, and contented
themselves by fishing for me with a chain-hook tied to a
broom-handle, I believe. I did not offer to go and fetch
up my shovel, which was left down below.

"Things began to look bad. We put the long-boat
into the water. The second boat was ready to swing out.
We had also another, a fourteen-foot thing, on davits
aft, where it was quite safe.

"Then behold, the smoke suddenly decreased. We re-
doubled our efforts to flood the bottom of the ship. In
two days there was no smoke at all. Everybody was on
the broad grin. This was on a Friday. On Saturday no
work, but sailing the ship of course was done. The men
washed their clothes and 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. Some-
how 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