“What’s the trouble, Capt. O’Hara?” shouted the Prince, in his usual loud tone, though the captain was not six feet from him. “I’ve been taking a nap; and, when I waked up, I thought the steamer had stopped; but I found she was moving a little. Is any thing out of kilter?” “We are making but six knots an hour, sir; and the rascals of firemen won’t work,” replied O’Hara. “Won’t work? What’s got into them?” “I don’t know, sir: I am going down into the fire-room to see what the trouble is.” “All right: that’s the way to do business; and I’ll go down with you,” added the Prince. They stopped in the engine-room to hear what the engineer had to say about it. Richards had been down, and had called in French a dozen times for more steam; but the firemen would not do any better. He had found the furnace-doors open; and he concluded that the Italians and Frenchmen had concluded to strike for higher wages, though they had received their own price for their services. “We will soon see about that!” exclaimed O’Hara, as he began to descend the iron steps into the fire-room. “I guess we can straighten them out,” added the Prince, as he followed the captain. They found the firemen--not only the watch on duty, but all of them--seated in the airiest part of the room, smoking their pipes and cigars as coolly as though every thing was going well on board. The doors of the furnaces were fastened wide open, and the steam was rapidly diminishing in pressure. “What are you about?” demanded O’Hara, very indignant at the state of things he found in the fire-room. Mr. Frisbone went to the furnaces at the same time, for it was of no avail for him to say any thing to these men who did not understand his language. He closed the doors of the furnaces, which were tolerably well supplied with coal, and opened the draughts. As he did so, one of the Frenchmen came up to him, followed by two more. “_Non! Non!_” shouted one of them, as he closed the draught, and threw open the doors again. He proceeded to make a rather violent speech in his own language, which was not understood by the Prince. But the latter could understand the man’s actions if not his words; and they meant rebellion as plainly as though it had been formally declared in the English tongue. He was not a man to be set aside by anybody; and he pushed the Frenchman away, and opened the doors and draughts again. He had scarcely completed the task before one of the men struck him a violent blow on the head, which felled him to the floor. But he was not badly hurt, and leaped to his feet on the instant. In the twinkling of an eye he had knocked over two of his assailants; and the third was on the point of hitting him on the back of the head with an iron bar, when O’Hara, seeing his danger, rushed upon the Frenchman, and, seizing the man by the neck, jammed his knees into the small of his back so as to throw him over backwards.