s. Ash was everywhere. From it rose a quivering heat, smellin' o'
sulphur an' the Pit.

"Yet everyone couldn't be dead on this ghost-ship, for someone must ha'
steered her into the harbor, an' dropped the anchor. Makin' his way
along the rail, the harbor-master made his way to where he could reach
the iron ladder goin' to the bridge, an' climbed it. The bridge was
clear of ash, blown free by the mornin' breeze.

"The chart-house door was open. In it, lyin' across the steam steerin'
wheel, was Captain Freeman, unconscious. His face was so blistered that
his eyes were nearly shut. His hair was singed right down to the skull.
His hands were raw an' bleedin'. His clothes were scorched into
something that was black an' brittle. The harbor-master lifted him, an'
laid him on the chart-house bunk."

"What others were there?"

"Pickin' his way, he got to the bow an' found the deck hand who had let
down the anchor. He was blind an' his flesh was crisped and cracking.

"From below, crawled up four o' the engine-room crew. Most o' the others
aboard lay dead under those heaps o' hot ash on the deck."

"What had happened?"

"This had happened. The _Roddam_ had been through the eruption of Mont
Pelee, the only ship which escaped o' the eighteen that were in the
harbor. She got away only because she made port just fifty-two minutes
before the eruption, an' had been ordered to the quarantine station,
some distance off."

"Did you see anything of the eruption yourself?"

"We knew that somethin' had happened, even down here in St. Lucia. It
turned almost as black as night for a few minutes, an' our skipper, who
was ashore, said he had felt a slight earthquake. But we saw enough of
it, right after."

"How?" queried Stuart.

"We had a lot o' foodstuff in our cargo, some of which was billed for
Caracas. But, as soon as we heard the story, our captain told the
engineer to get up full steam an' make for Fort-de-France. He knew the
owners would have wanted him to go to the relief of the folks of
Martinique. We got there the next day an' saw sights! Sights I can't
ever forget!"

The eruption of Mont Pelee and the destruction of the town of St.
Pierre, in 1902, over 30,000 people being killed in the space of three
seconds, was one of the most tragic disasters of history, and the ruins
of St. Pierre are today the most astounding ruins that the world
contains of so vast and terrible a calamity, outrivaling those of
Pompeii.

The c