Page:O'Higgins--Old Clinkers.djvu/24

{{c|OLD CLINKERS|| enemy overhead. At most he showed only a cool reliance on the streams of the Hudson to cope with any mischief that might be in hand; for the Hudson had a battery of four sets of duplex pumps that could force out of her pipes as much water in a minute as twenty shore-engines in a row; and Keighley was eager for a big fire to test her powers on.

The pilot in the wheelhouse brought her sweeping into the narrow slip beside the Sachsen, riding the ridges of her own swell—her keel all but naked amidships—and reversed with a suddenness that shook her to the stack. From the deck of the Sachsen men were bawling down: "Cotton in the forrud hold! Cotton afire! Cotton afire!" Captain Keighley struck at the whistle rope and blew for tugboats. "Moore," {{c|8}}