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.
