CHAPTER 22 CAPTAIN BARKER’S COURAGE

Never did a fire seem to spread so rapidly. In less than three minutes, as those aboard the River Queen watched in helpless horror, the Florence became a mass of flames from stem to stern. Terrified passengers jammed the gangplank as they tried to crowd ashore. Some of them leaped from the excursion boat’s high railings to the dock below.

“Her mooring lines are ablaze!” Captain Barker shouted a moment later.

“And the freight sheds are catching afire,” Penny added, observing a telltale line of flame starting from the flimsy wooden buildings along the wharf, directly back of the dock where the Florence had moored.

The blazing sheds worried Captain Barker far less than the fact that the mooring lines had caught fire. If the Florence should be cut loose from the dock, helpless women and children would be carried out onto the river in a flaming inferno.

“Why don’t the fire boats get here!” Sally murmured nervously. “Oh, this is going to be a dreadful disaster if something isn’t done to save those helpless people!”

At the bridge leading to the pilot house, Captain Barker stood tensely watching, his hand on the signal ropes.

“There go the mooring lines!” he shouted. “The current should bring her this way!”

As the Florence slowly drifted away from the blazing wharf, men and women began to leap over the railings into the dark waters.

“Man the lifeboats!” Captain Barker ordered his crew tersely. “I’m going to try to get a tow line on ’er!” He signaled the engine room, and the River Queen began to back rapidly toward the flaming excursion boat.

Penny and Sally ran to help launch the lifeboats. With the River Queen desperately short handed, they would be needed to handle oars. A fireman, an engineer, Captain Barker and a helmsman must remain at their posts, which left only three sailors to pick up passengers.

Leaping into the first boat launched, the girls rowed into the path of the blazing vessel. In its bright glow against the sky, they could see panic-stricken passengers running about the decks. An increasing number were leaping into the water, and many could not swim.

Ignoring the cries of those who had life belts or were swimming strongly, they rapidly picked up survivors. To pull children aboard was a comparatively easy task. But many of the women were heavy, and the combined strength of the girls barely was sufficient to get them into the boat without upsetting.

Finally the lifeboat was filled beyond capacity, and they turned to land their cargo aboard the Queen. Only then did they see what Captain Barker intended to do.

His men had succeeded in making a line fast to the Florence’s stern. By this time the excursion boat was a flaming inferno, with only a few passengers, the captain, and crew remaining aboard.

“Pop’s going to tow the Florence downstream away from the freight sheds!” Sally cried. “Some of those buildings are filled with war materials awaiting shipment—coal, oil and I don’t know what all! If a fire once gets going there, nothing will stop it!”

Working feverishly, the girls unloaded their passengers and went back for more. Motorboats had set out from shore, and they too aided in the rescue work. Some of the survivors were taken to land, and others were put aboard the Queen.

Aided by a sailor they had picked up, the girls worked until they no longer could see bobbing heads in the swirling waters.

“We’ve done all we can,” Sally gasped, as they helped the last of the passengers aboard the Queen. “The captain and most of his men will stay on the Florence as long as they are able.”

Though exhausted by their work, the girls did what they could for those aboard. Sally distributed all the blankets she could find, and Penny helped a sailor revive two women who were unconscious from having swallowed too much water.

Suddenly there came a loud report like the crack of a pistol.

The tow line to the Florence had parted! Once more the excursion boat, now a roaring furnace, was adrift in mid-stream.

In an instant it was apparent to Penny what would happen. The cross-current was strong, and in a minute or two would carry the burning vessel into the wharves and sheds. When the boat struck, flying sparks would ignite the dry wood for a considerable distance, and soon the entire waterfront would be ablaze.

Though outwardly calm, Captain Barker was beset as he appraised the situation. It would not be possible to get another tow line onto the Florence for already her decks had become untenable for the crew. The blazing vessel was drifting rapidly.

“We could ram her,” he muttered. “She might be nosed out into the channel again, and headed away from the freight docks.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” Sally asked anxiously. “We have at least fifty passengers aboard. In this high wind, the Queen would be almost certain to catch fire.”

“There’s nothing else to do,” Captain Barker decided grimly, signaling the engine room. “The Florence is drifting fast, and before the fire boats can get here, half the waterfront will be ablaze. Have the passengers wet down the decks and stand by with buckets!”

Penny and Sally worked feverishly carrying out orders. The deck hose was attached, and buckets were brought from below and filled with water. All survivors who were able to help, cooperated to the fullest extent, helping wet down the decks and assisting women and children to the stern of the ferryboat.

Captain Barker had given an order for the Queen to move full speed ahead.

In a moment the two boats made jarring contact. Penny was thrown from her feet. Scrambling up, she saw that blazing timbers from the Florence had crashed directly onto the River Queen’s deck. Sparks were falling everywhere. The ferryboat had caught fire in a dozen places.

Seizing a bucket of water, she doused out the flames nearest her. Heat from the Florence was intense, and many of the men who had volunteered to help, began to retreat.

Penny and Sally stuck at their post, knowing that the lives of all depended upon extinguishing the flames quickly. Crew members of the Florence worked beside them with quiet, determined efficiency.

In the midst of the excitement, the final boatload of picked-up survivors had to be taken aboard. Captain Jamison, one of the last to leave the Florence, collapsed as he reached the deck. Severely burned, he was carried below to receive first-aid treatment.

Undaunted, Captain Barker shouted terse orders, goading the men to greater activity when the flames showed signs of getting beyond control. After the first contact with the Florence, only occasional sparks ignited the Queen’s decks, but the heat was terrific. Women and children became hysterical, fearful that the ferryboat would become a flaming torch.

“The worst is over now,” Sally sighed as she and Penny refilled water buckets. “Pop knows what he’s doing. He’s saved the waterfront.”

“But this ferryboat?”

“It still may go up in smoke, but I don’t think so,” Sally replied calmly. “Pop is heading so that the wind will carry the flames away from us. He’ll beach the Florence on Horseshoe Shoal and let the wreck burn to the water’s edge.”

For the next fifteen minutes, there was no lessening of worry aboard the River Queen. The ferryboat clung grimly to the blazing excursion boat, losing contact at times, then picking her up again, and pushing on toward the shoal.

Fire fighting activities aboard the ferryboat became better organized; the passengers, observing that Captain Barker knew what he was about, became calm and easily managed. By the time fire boats arrived to spray the Florence with streams of pressured water, the situation was well in hand.

Collapsing on the deck from sheer exhaustion, Penny and Sally gazed toward the warehouses and docks on the opposite shore. Only one fire of any size was visible there.

“The fire boats will quickly put it out,” Sally said confidently. “But I hate to think what would have happened if the wind and current had driven the Florence along those wharves.”

Penny wiped her cheek and saw that her hand was covered with black soot. Sally too was a sight. She had ripped the hem from her skirt, her hair was an untidy mess, everything about her was pungent with smoke.

“Where were we when all this excitement started?” Penny asked presently. “If my memory serves me correctly, we had sent out a police call for Claude Harper and his pals to be arrested. It all seems vague in my mind, as if it occurred a million years ago.”

“Why, I had forgotten too!” Sally gasped. “I hope the police went there and caught those men before they made a get-away.”

Scrambling to their feet, the girls moved to the starboard side of the Queen, which permitted a view of the Harper house far upriver. They were startled and dismayed to see tongues of flame shooting from a window.

“That place has caught on fire too!” Sally exclaimed, then corrected herself. “But sparks from the Florence never could have been carried so far!”

“The house has been set afire on purpose!” Penny cried. “Oh, Sally, don’t you see? It’s a trick to destroy all the evidence hidden there! The Harpers intend to skip town tonight, and they’re taking advantage of this fire to make it appear that destruction of the house is accidental!”