Page:Dick Hamilton's Fortune.djvu/135

Rh of which set up screams of terror as they saw what had happened.

"Jump!" cried Dick again, as he crawled aft and tried to shut off the engine.

Three splashes in the water told that his companions had leaped overboard and were comparatively out of danger.

"Come on, Dick!" cried Bricktop, rising to the surface. "Jump, or you'll be burned to death."

"I can't!" yelled back Dick, shielding his face from the awful flames with his arm. "I've got to shut off the engine, or the boat'll run into some other one and set it afire!"

Once more he bravely tried to work his way to the engine. He could not reach the gasolene cock from where he was. He cast a look ahead, and saw that his boat was approaching, at swift speed, a knot of other boats, the steersmen of which were too confused to know what to do. Some were getting out of the way, but others were in the direct course of the burning craft

"What can I do?" Dick asked himself in a hoarse whisper. "I must stop the boat, or steer it out of the way—but how?"

He could neither reach the engine nor the wheel, for the fire was now raging in bow and stern. He stood in a little cockpit amidships, where, for the moment, there were no flames.

Dick looked desperately about him. Nearer and nearer his craft shot to the boats containing girls in their light summer dresses. Once the