Regaining my feet I did not hesitate. I had arranged the whole plan in my mind beforehand, and did not waste a second considering what should be done. Shouting to my companions that I would free them in a few minutes, I rushed along the saloon, down the little alleyway, past the steward's cabin, and so on to the main-deck. Before a man could have counted twenty I was standing among the polished wheels and rods of the engine-room. "Heaven send they remained true of their decision to place it in the stoke-hole," I said to myself as I descended the narrow ladder that led to the furnace-room below. [Illustration: CLUTCHING IT IN MY ARMS. _To face page 281._] It is strange how, in moments of such awful mental anguish, the mind will revert from the matter in hand to some apparently trivial subject. On this occasion I remembered how, many years ago, the Chairman of a great Steamship Company had been kind enough to take me over one of their new vessels, and had shown me the engine-room and the stoke-hole below. How little I had thought then that my next visit to a similar place would be in search of an infernal machine that was intended to take my life! Rung by rung I descended the ladder and at last found myself in the stoke-hole. The furnaces were still alight, the men not having taken the trouble to draw the fires. Their rakes and shovels lay just as where they had thrown them down, but not a trace of the object I was searching for could I discover. Like a madman I ran hither and thither, hunting high and low: indeed it was not until I was almost giving up the search in despair, and was going off to look elsewhere, that my diligence was rewarded. Then, in a corner, I made out a black object, in shape not unlike a large band-box. That it was the bomb there could be no doubt, for when I placed my ear to its side, I could distinctly hear the ticking of the clockwork within. Clutching it in my arms, regardless of what would happen should the allotted time expire while I was carrying it, I climbed the ladder, passed through the engine room, and into the alley beyond. A mist was clouding my eyes, my breath came in heavy gasps, but I heeded nothing save the necessity for getting that devilish contrivance overboard, and out of harm's way. Reaching the bulwarks on the starboard side, that is to say, on the side opposite to that on which the strange vessel was lying, I raised it high above my head and threw it from me. It struck the water with a splash, a few bubbles followed it, and then it was gone. So far as that was concerned, we were saved.