"What's that?" whispered Miss Bell; and do you think I could speak? Not a word; for there, slowly making itself known, was an enemy which I had never counted upon seeing, and I couldn't help giving a groan, as I felt that now we should be beaten indeed. Accident, or done on purpose, I could not tell, but the ship was on fire, and the smoke in a steady column rolling slowly up, while I had hardly roused up the sleeping men, before, with a shout, Van, closely followed by Brassey and the other two, came over the poop on to the deck. Fighting seemed no good, after what was taking place before us;--our enmity seeming quite small now before this trouble,--and besides, what was the use of having a struggle for what would probably be burned to the water's edge in the course of an hour or two; so giving way, we slowly backed up under the bulwarks, leaving the mutineers free to act as they pleased. It was a bad plan, for the first thing they did was to loosen the men in the forksel, when out they came yelling and savage, but only to stand and stare for a few moments at the smoke rolling up through the tarpaulin, which now began to blaze. That it was an accident, was now plain enough, for, taking no notice of us, they began, in a hurried sort of way, to draw buckets of water and throw over it; then two men got to one of the pumps, but what they did seemed a mere nothing. Then a panic seemed to seize them, and throwing down the buckets, they began busily to get one of the boats ready, throwing in a compass and anything they could lay hands on, some fetching rum and biscuit up out of the cabin, and all in a hurried frightened way, as if not a moment was to be lost, and they might expect the ship to blow up any minute. All at once Mr Ward darts forward, shouting, "Lend a hand here, and we shall save her yet!" and for the next quarter of an hour no one would have thought there had been a mutiny, for we were all working away side by side against what was an enemy to both parties; and bucket after bucket was poured into the burning hole, but with no more effect than if the buckets had been thimbles. The fire and smoke came rolling up, and rising higher and higher, while, as if to fan the flames, a sharp wind blew seemingly from all four quarters at once, making the flames roar again; and first one and then another threw his bucket into the fire, and began running below for provisions to put in the two boats. I think Mr Ward was the last man to drop his bucket; and that was when the flames had risen and risen in a column of fire to lick the rigging, and then began leaping from rope to rope, and sail to sail, till the mizen was one blaze of light, brightening the sea far and wide, till it looked like so much golden oil, without a ripple upon it anywhere.