登陆注册
19633600000013

第13章 CHAPTER IV(4)

And now a new horror presented itself. The wreck took fire from the dismantled furnaces! Never did men work with a heartier will than did those stalwart braves with the axes. But it was of no use. The fire ate its way steadily, despising the bucket brigade that fought it. It scorched the clothes, it singed the hair of the axemen--it drove them back, foot by foot-inch by inch--they wavered, struck a final blow in the teeth of the enemy, and surrendered. And as they fell back they heard prisoned voices saying:

"Don't leave us! Don't desert us! Don't, don't do it!"

And one poor fellow said:

"I am Henry Worley, striker of the Amaranth! My mother lives in St.

Louis. Tell her a lie for a poor devil's sake, please. Say I was killed in an instant and never knew what hurt me--though God knows I've neither scratch nor bruise this moment! It's hard to burn up in a coop like this with the whole wide world so near. Good-bye boys--we've all got to come to it at last, anyway!"

The Boreas stood away out of danger, and the ruined steamer went drifting down the stream an island of wreathing and climbing flame that vomited clouds of smoke from time to time, and glared more fiercely and sent its luminous tongues higher and higher after each emission. A shriek at intervals told of a captive that had met his doom. The wreck lodged upon a sandbar, and when the Boreas turned the next point on her upward journey it was still burning with scarcely abated fury.

When the boys came down into the main saloon of the Boreas, they saw a pitiful sight and heard a world of pitiful sounds. Eleven poor creatures lay dead and forty more lay moaning, or pleading or screaming, while a score of Good Samaritans moved among them doing what they could to relieve their sufferings; bathing their chinless faces and bodies with linseed oil and lime water and covering the places with bulging masses of raw cotton that gave to every face and form a dreadful and unhuman aspect.

A little wee French midshipman of fourteen lay fearfully injured, but never uttered a sound till a physician of Memphis was about to dress his hurts. Then he said:

"Can I get well? You need not be afraid to tell me."

"No--I--I am afraid you can not."

"Then do not waste your time with me--help those that can get well."

"But----"

"Help those that can get well! It is, not for me to be a girl. I carry the blood of eleven generations of soldiers in my veins!"

The physician--himself a man who had seen service in the navy in his time--touched his hat to this little hero, and passed on.

The head engineer of the Amaranth, a grand specimen of physical manhood, struggled to his feet a ghastly spectacle and strode toward his brother, the second engineer, who was unhurt. He said:

"You were on watch. You were boss. You would not listen to me when I begged you to reduce your steam. Take that!--take it to my wife and tell her it comes from me by the hand of my murderer! Take it--and take my curse with it to blister your heart a hundred years--and may you live so long!"

And he tore a ring from his finger, stripping flesh and skin with it, threw it down and fell dead!

But these things must not be dwelt upon. The Boreas landed her dreadful cargo at the next large town and delivered it over to a multitude of eager hands and warm southern hearts--a cargo amounting by this time to 39 wounded persons and 22 dead bodies. And with these she delivered a list of 96 missing persons that had drowned or otherwise perished at the scene of the disaster.

A jury of inquest was impaneled, and after due deliberation and inquiry they returned the inevitable American verdict which has been so familiar to our ears all the days of our lives--"NOBODY TO BLAME."

**[The incidents of the explosion are not invented. They happened just as they are told.--The Authors.]

同类推荐
  • 古学考

    古学考

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Who Cares

    Who Cares

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宋景文公笔记

    宋景文公笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 夹科肇论序注

    夹科肇论序注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 首楞严经疏

    首楞严经疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 西三旗:赵大年短篇小说选

    西三旗:赵大年短篇小说选

    本书包括:《五百里路呀》、《怪圈儿》、《活鱼》、《西三旗》等21篇小说和一篇报告文学。
  • 穿越之爱在千年之前

    穿越之爱在千年之前

    车祸重生,她只想平淡的过这一生。但却遇到了一个不平凡的他。他让她的生活变得更加精彩。
  • 消费心理学(心理学课堂02)

    消费心理学(心理学课堂02)

    《心理学课堂》套书共5册,包括《消费心理学》、《博弈心理学》、《乌合之众——大众心理研究》、《价格心理学》、《销售心理学》,《心理学课堂》从多方面总结和归纳了与人们生活息息相关的社会活动中的心理学,并配以生动的案例,增加了阅读趣味。阅读《心理学课堂》,可以使人们清醒的认识生活中所遇到的种种不合理现象并加以规避,从中得到人生智慧,使生活更加积极主动。
  • The Lady From The Sea

    The Lady From The Sea

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生之掌上明珠

    重生之掌上明珠

    容霁云一直以为自己天生薄命:生而为父厌弃,长而随母颠沛流离,为了活下去,不得不寄人篱下、仰人鼻息。好在老天还给她留了一条活路,赐给了她英俊而又痴情的夫君,即便她无法生育,依旧是不离不弃。却不料狠心父亲本是爱女逾命,如意郎君才是禽兽心肠,而所谓孤女的自己,却是出身高贵的世家嫡女。惨死破庙的那一刻,霁云终于幡然悔悟:若有来生,定要远离渣男、父女团聚、快意人生。
  • 首席恶魔代理

    首席恶魔代理

    普通穷学生误签卖身契,从此成为了一名恶魔代理人。坑蒙拐骗偷?没问题,恶魔就要有恶魔的做派不是,路西法大人会赞扬你一切的罪恶,上帝耶稣去死去死。轻轻松松的生活不会太久,恶魔就要有恶魔的觉悟不是,我就是一个随时会丢命的恶魔代理人。------------------------------新人新书,插草求推荐点击收藏ONL
  • 情深缘浅,总裁不再见

    情深缘浅,总裁不再见

    聂沛洋这样的男人,出身世家名门。有着一张英俊漂亮的容貌,品位高雅有内涵,不管走在哪里,他永远都能独成一道发光体。女人们前仆后继。前天,聂先生和某位千金携手舞会。昨天,聂先生和嫩模一块出海游玩。今天,聂先生在夜总会的时候身边又多了一位陌生的美女…。……。唯独简汀跟了他七年,七年里,她敢对聂沛洋说:我对你的好,就连你父母恐怕也不过如此了。她以为自己会一直这么犯傻下去,可偏偏遇到了利先生。◎狭小的车里,利先生悄无声息的将她围困其中,眼神霸道而笃定,“简小姐,你处心积虑的跟我偶遇,又帮我翻译买手表,为我挡酒,还记得我胃疼,我迷路了你每次都会像齐天大圣一样从天而降,你敢说你对我没有一点点意思”?简汀被挤在狭小的角落里,透不过气,欲哭无泪,这真的是一个天大的误会啊。◎聂沛洋曾经放话给康城的男人说过:“简汀就是我的影子,如果哪一天我影子没了,我还能算是个完整的人吗,如果你们想要追简汀,得先从我尸体上踩过去”。直到有一天利先生风度翩翩的来到他身边,手插裤袋云淡风轻的说道:“不好意思,从今以后你的尸体我得踏踏了”。PS:189章正文完结,190章以后肖柏和纪婉笙番外。
  • 中华对联(第六卷)

    中华对联(第六卷)

    本书是一套中国关于对联的 作品集,是中国的传统文化和民间文化普及读物。
  • 第七冥案

    第七冥案

    死亡奇案迭出,凶手竟是一位柔弱女子,更令郑北安惊异的是,她自称是来自地府的行刑者……
  • 魔域神境

    魔域神境

    引:谜雷鸣大陆的中央,有一座石门,门上有锁,锁上有字,写着:"解开此锁者,将成四海之王。"据说第一代四海之王曾长久矗立门前,最终,他拔出剑,仰天高呼:"这就是钥匙,让整个世界在我剑下颤抖吧!!!"剑落锁断,门开,绝代英雄昂然走入石门,一去不返!……从那时起,在这片大陆上开始流行一个谜语:"正午的阳光下,在狮子留下的鹰的影子里,即为众神之国。"有人说,这也许仅仅是天神对人类的戏弄,但更多的人坚信,拥有他的人,必须是相信他的人。