"Get back, you cowards! If we do take to the boats it will be women and
children first! But we're not going to! Stop that noise!"

His hand went, with an unmistakable gesture, to his pocket. Perhaps he
was about to draw a weapon, but there was no need.

His ringing words, the lash of "coward," that cut like a knife, and his
bearing, had an immediate effect.

"Stop those shouts of 'fire!'" he cried, and the excited men and women
became quiet.

"Now get back to your places--every one of you!" he ordered the sailors.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, to leave your mates to answer the
fire call alone," and he pointed to where a number of hands were about
the hatchway, from which smoke was still coming. But the wind was taking
it away from the ship now, which was the reason why the vessel had been
turned around.

"Get to your quarters!" the captain commanded, and the men slunk away.
The danger of a panic was over--at least for the time.

Ruth and Alice stood where they had risen from their steamer chairs,
their hands clasped, and Alice had thrust her rosy palm into the broad
one of Paul. He held it reassuringly.

"Oh, what shall we do?" murmured Ruth.

"There isn't another ship in sight," added Alice, as she looked about the
horizon.