The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-09-15
THE STEAMER ON FIRE.
How Its Lives Were Saved by S'The
Man Who Didn't Know Much.''

HOW Its Lives Were Saved by SSThe
Man Who Didn't Know Much.o
THE Captain stood another instant in
profound thought, during which his quick
and fearless mind had considered all the
contingencies, and, without a word to
the three men that were with him, he
started for the deck and the pilot.
He summoned his chief engineer and his
officers around him, and stated what he
had discovered-iaid the whole subject
in few terse words before them, and
said:
Gentlemen, in five minutes the sa-
looms will be like an oven, and the win
dows of this pilot-house will be cracking.
Have you anything to suggest"
The first officer, sailor from boyhood
whose head and beard were already gray,
said promptly:
Captain, we must beach her." The
others looked their assent.
F" It's our only course" said the Cap
tain. Pilot" said he, turning to the
man whose eyes were on the look out,
"can you beach herr" The other DELHI
Grated moment, and said:
Captain, | am ready to take any re-
sponsibility that man in my position
should take. am ready to execute any
order you give; but will not take the
responsibility of running this steamer,
with 600 passengers aboard, on to coast
that know nothing of beyond the knowl-
edge | have of the lights, the reefs and
the harbors. 1t would be mere chance
if | got her within half mile of the
shore"
The Captain actually groaned. He saw
and admitted the force of the pilots as
sertion. For moment not word was
spoken, while the ship went tearing on
through the water, and the premonitions
of rising tumult came to their ears from
below, showing that the passengers were
already on the move. He looked an in
slant into each face before him, lifted
his hand and wiped the great drops of
sweat from his forehead, and said:
Gentlemen, what shall we do? l feel
the floor under my feet heating! The
passengers are moving out of the saloon!
What we do must be done quickly! We
are overloaded Our boats wouldn't ac-
commodate half, and besides boat
couldn't live in that sea. What shall we
do?"
Not man spoke. They felt as if the
horror of death were shutting down
around them. They were brave, they
were calm. They showed no evidence of
fear. They could meet death as men
should meet it; but they could not tell
how to escape it. Suddenly the Captains
face lighted with light which was the
reflection of hope, of con lecture, of
accessibility. He darted out of the pilot
house, swung himself down among the
crew, who we're busy with the pumps
and the hose, and shouted, with con-
centration of voice that penetrated the
roar of the storm like knife:
SIS there a man here who knows this
coast?"
When the Captain dropped among
them the men stopped their work and
stood staring at him. Only the old trap
per and Herbert, each of whom had
stood above the forward hatch, hose in
hand, directing the streams that the
pumps sent through the swelling tubes
downward, kept their position. The Cap
tain waited a moment, while the light
faded from his countenance as no re-
spouse came, and then, as if in very de.
span, uo oHouIOu'
Is there a man here who knows this
Coast?"
Again no reply came, and he was upon
the point of turning away, when the lad,
who had been knecling under the pro-
lection of the bulwark, trying to stop a
gent which the pressure had made in the
hose that the old trapper was tending,
rose out of the shadow and, approaching
the Captain, said:
Yes, sir. l know the coast"
"Who are YOU" said the Captain
'"that claim such knowledge? Are you
not the youth l saw with the old hunter
at the table to night? How should you
born in the interior, know anything about
this coast?"
IL was not born in the woods, re