and they'd find out who we are. If we could only steal a boat!" he
exclaimed eagerly--"one of those on the davits," he urged--"we
could put our suitcases in it and then, after every one is asleep,
we could lower it into the water."

The smallest boat on board was certified to hold twenty-five
persons, and without waking the entire ship's company we could as
easily have moved the chart-room. This I pointed out.

"Don't make objections!" Kinney cried petulantly. He was rapidly
recovering his spirits. The imminence of danger seemed to inspire
him.

"Think!" he commanded. "Think of some way by which we can get off
this boat before she reaches New Bedford. We MUST! We must not be
arrested! It would be too awful!" He interrupted himself with an
excited exclamation.

"I have it!" he whispered hoarsely: "I will ring in the fire-alarm!
The crew will run to quarters. The boats will be lowered. We will
cut one of them adrift. In the confusion--"

What was to happen in the confusion that his imagination had
conjured up, I was not to know. For what actually happened was so
confused that of nothing am I quite certain. First, from the water
of the Sound, that was lapping pleasantly against the side, I heard
the voice of a man raised in terror. Then came a rush of feet,
oaths, and yells; then a shock that threw us to our knees, and a
crunching, ripping, and tearing roar like that made by the roof of
a burning building when it plunges to the cellar.