remember thinking in my sleep what a comfort it was
it was only the major, when one of the chaps give me a dig in the back
an' woke me.

"'Tumble up,' ses he, 'the ship's afire.'

"I rushed up on deck, an' there was no mistake about who was blowing the
whistle. The bell was jangling horrible, smoke was rolling up from the
hatches, an' some o' the men was dragging out the hose an' tripping up
the passengers with it as they came running up on deck. The noise and
confusion was fearful.

"'Out with the boats,' ses Tom Hall to me, 'don't you hear the whistle?'

"'What, ain't we going to try an' put the fire out?' I ses.

"'Obey orders,' ses Tom, 'that's what we've got to do, an' the sooner
we're away the better. You know what's in her.'

"We ran to the boats then, an', I must say, we got 'em out well, and the
very fust person to git into mine was the major in his piejammers; arter
all the others was in we 'ad 'im out agin. He didn't belong to our boat,
an' dissipline is dissipline any day.

"Afore we could git clear o' the ship, however, he came yelling to the
side an' said _his_ boat had gone, an' though we prodded him with our
oars he lowered himself over the side and dropped in.

"Fortunately for us it was a lovely clear night; there was no moon, but
the stars were very bright. The engines had stopped, an' the old ship
sat on the water scarcely moving. Another boat was bumping up against
ours, and two more came creeping round the bows from the port side an'
jined us.

"'Who's in command?' calls out the major.

"'I am,' ses the first mate very sharp-like from one of the boats.

"'Where's the cap'n then?' called out an old lady from my boat, 'o' the
name o' Prendergast.'

"'He's standing by the ship,' ses the mate.

"'Doing _what?_' ses Mrs. Prendergast, looking at the water as though
she expected to see the skipper standing there.

"'He's going down with the ship,' ses one o' the chaps.

"Then Mrs. Prendergast asked somebody to be kind enough to lend her
a handkerchief, becos she had left her pocket behind aboard ship, and
began to sob very bitter.

"'Just a simple British sailor,' ses she, snivelling, 'going down with
his ship. There he is. Look! On the bridge.'

"We all looked, an' then some o' the other wimmin wanted to borrer
handkerchiefs. I lent one of 'em a little cotton waste, but she was
so unpleasant about its being a trifle oily that she forgot all about
crying, and said she'd tell the mate