The boats had been gone an hour, and yet it
seemed, to all in the ship, but a minute. The conflagration had, for the
last ten minutes, advanced with renewed fury; and the whole of the
confined flame, which had been so long pent in the depths of the vessel
now glared high in the open air.
"This heat can no longer be borne," said Ludlow; "we must to our raft, for
breath."
"To the raft then!" returned the cheerful voice of the free-trader. "Haul
in upon your fasts, men, and stand by to receive the precious freight."
The seamen obeyed. Alida and her companions were lowered safely to the
place prepared for then reception. The fore-mast had gone over the side,
with all its spars aloft; for preparation had been made, before the fire
commenced, to carry sail to the utmost, in order to escape the enemy. The
skilful and active seamen, directed and aided by Ludlow and the Skimmer,
had made a simple but happy disposition of those boy ant materials on
which their all now depended. In settling in the water, the yards, still
crossed, had happily fallen uppermost. The booms and all the light spars
had been floated near the top, and laid across, reaching from the lower to
the top-sail-yard. A few light spars, stowed outboard, had been cut away
and added to the number, and the whole were secured with the readiness and
ingenuity of seamen. On the first alarm of fire, some of the crew had
seized a few light articles that would float, and rushed to the head, as
the place most remote from the magazine, in the blind hope of saving life
by swimming.
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