"Dot is right. Gentlemen, ve are forgetting ourselves!"

"And it took him--above everyone else--to remind them of it," said Mr.
DeVere in a low voice. He had remained by the side of his daughters.

"Mr. Switzer is a bigger man than any of us thought," murmured Ruth. "Oh,
Daddy, is the boat going to sink?"

"We are going to be blown up!" exclaimed a big man, who, with others, had
made a half start for the boat, and then had hung back shamefacedly.

"If you say that again!" cried Paul, in a fierce whisper, "I'll throw you
overboard! This is no time to start a panic!"

The man slunk away. There came another explosion, not so loud as the
first, but enough to cause the men to start involuntarily, and to bring
frantic screams from the women passengers.

"What is that, Captain?" asked Mr. Pertell.

"Nothing to be alarmed about," was the calm answer.

"They sound alarming enough," declared a woman.

"But they are not," the commander insisted. "They are only slight
explosions of coal gas in some of the bunkers. The fire is slowly eating
into them but the explosions are not heavy enough to cause any serious
damage to the ship.