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"Get your life preservers!" cried Mr. Bobbsey; then, when he saw that his wife had one, and that the children were reaching under their berths for theirs, he took his.
The smoke was getting thicker in the staterooms, and the yells and shouts of Captain Crane, Cousin Jasper and the crew could be heard.
Up on deck rushed the Bobbseys. There they found the electric lights glowing, and they saw more smoke. Cousin Jasper and Captain Crane had a hose and were pointing it toward what seemed to be a hole in the back part of the boat.
"Oh, see!" shouted Flossie.
"Is the fire engine working?" Freddie demanded, as he saw them. "Can I help put the fire out?"
"No, little fireman!" said Captain Crane with a laugh, and when Mrs. Bobbsey heard this she felt better, for she thought that there was not much danger, or the captain would not have been so jolly. "We have the fire almost out now," the captain went on. "Don't be worried, and don't any of you jump overboard," he said a...
"No, we won't do that," she said. "But I was getting ready to jump into a boat."
"I guess you won't have to do that," said Cousin Jasper.
"Is the Swallow on fire?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"It was," his cousin answered. "But we have put it out now. There is a good pump on board, and we pumped water on the blaze as soon as we saw it."
From the hold, which was a place where canned food and other things could be stored, smoke was still pouring, and now and then little tongues of fire shot up. It was this fire which Mr. Bobbsey had seen through the open door of his stateroom.
"Oh, maybe it's going to be an awful big fire!" said Freddie. "Maybe it'll burn the whole boat up!"
"Freddie, Freddie! Don't say such dreadful things!" broke in his mother. "We don't want this boat to burn up."
"I see where it is," said Flossie. "It's down in that great big cellar-like place where they keep all those things to eat -- those boxes of corn and beans and salmon and sardines and tomatoes, and all the things like that."
"Yes. And the 'densed milk!" put in Freddie. "And 'spargus. And the jam! And all those nice sweet things, too!" he added mournfully.
"What shall we do if all our food is burnt up?" went on Flossie.
"We can't live on the boat if we haven't anything to eat," asserted Freddie. "We'll have to go on shore and get something."
"You might catch another big fish," suggested his twin.
"Would you let me have your doll?"
"No, I wouldn't!" was the prompt response. "You can get lots of other things for bait, and you know it, Freddie Bobbsey!"
"How did the fire happen?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of the captain, when she got the chance.
"One of the electric light wires broke and set fire to some oily rags," answered Captain Crane. "Then some empty wooden boxes began to blaze. There was nothing in them -- all the food having been taken out -- but the wood made quite a fire and a lot of smoke.
"Mr. Chase, who was on deck steering, smelled the smoke and saw the little blaze down in a storeroom. He called me and I called Mr. Dent. We hoped we could get the fire out before you folks knew about it. But I guess we didn't," said the captain.
"I smelled smoke, and it woke me up," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Then I called my husband and we all came on deck."
"That was the right thing to do," Captain Crane said. "And it was also good to put on the life preservers," for even Flossie and Freddie had done this. "Always get ready for the worst," the captain went on, "and then if you don't have to take to the small boats so much the better. But the fire will soon be out."
"Can I see the fire engine?" asked Freddie. "I haven't seen a fire engine for a long while." At his home he was always interested in this, but, luckily, Lakeport had few fires.
"It isn't exactly a fire engine," said Cousin Jasper to the little fellow. "It's just a big pump that forms part of one of the motors. I guess you can see how it works, for the fire is so nearly out now that we won't need much more water on it."
So the Bobbseys took off their life preservers, which are not very comfortable things to wear, and stayed on deck, watching the flames die out and the smoke drift away. The Swallow had been slowed down while the captain and the others were fighting the fire.
"Everything is all right now," said Cousin Jasper, and he took Freddie to the motor room to show him the pump, while Captain Crane still played the hose on the last dying embers.
The fire only burned up the oil-soaked rags and some empty boxes, not doing any damage to the motor boat, except a little scorching. The smoke made part of the Swallow black, but this could be painted over.
"And very lucky for us it was no worse," said Mr. Bobbsey, when they were ready to go back to their staterooms.
Freddie stayed and watched the pump as long as they would let him. It could be fastened to one of the motors and it pumped water from the ocean itself on the blaze.
"It's better than having a regular fire engine on land," said Freddie, telling Flossie about it afterward, "'cause in the ocean you can take all the water you like and nobody minds it. When I grow up I'm going to be a fireman on the ocean, and have lots of water."
"You'll have to have a boat so you can go on the ocean," said the little girl.
"Well, I like a boat, too," went on Freddie. "You can run the boat, Flossie, and I'll run the pump fire engine."
"All right," agreed little Flossie. "That's what we'll do."
After making sure that the last spark was out, Captain Crane shut off the water. The Bobbseys went back to bed, but neither the father nor the mother of the twins slept well the rest of the night. They were too busy thinking what might have happened if the fire had not been seen in time and plenty of water sprayed on i...
"Though there would not have been much danger," Captain Crane said at the breakfast table, where they all gathered the next morning. "We could all have gotten off in the two boats, and we could have rowed to some island. The sea was smooth."
"Where would we get anything to eat?" asked Nan.
"Oh, we'd put that in the boats before we left the ship," said the captain. "And we'd take water, too. But still I'm glad we didn't have to do that."
And the Bobbseys were glad, too.
Part of the day was spent in getting out of the storeroom the burned pieces of boxes. These were thrown overboard. Then one of the crew painted over the scorched places, and, by night, except for the smell of smoke and paint, one would hardly have known where the fire had been.
The weather was bright and sunny after leaving Palm Island, and the twins sat about the deck and looked across the deep, blue sea for a sight of the other island, where, it was hoped, the boy Jack would be found.
"I wonder what he's doing now," remarked Bert, as he and Nan were talking about the lost one, while Flossie and Freddie were listening to a story their mother was telling.
"Maybe he's walking up and down the beach looking for us to come," suggested Nan.
"How could he look for us when he doesn't know we're coming?" asked Bert.
"Well, maybe he hopes some boat will come for him," went on Nan. "And he must know that Cousin Jasper wouldn't go away and leave him all alone."
"Yes, I guess that's so," agreed Bert. "It must be pretty lonesome, all by himself on an island."
"But maybe somebody else is with him, or maybe he's been taken away," went on Nan. "Anyhow we'll soon know."
"How shall we?" asked Bert.