The
woodwork caught fire, and had been smouldering for hours, when the
nurse fortunately woke and discovered the state of affairs. She tried
to rouse the other maids, but they were stupefied with the smoke, and
so she rushed off at once to the doctor and Mr. Bingham. The former
seized a child under each arm, wrapped them in blankets, and carried
them off to the deck-house, Mabelle and the maids following, with more
blankets and rugs, hastily snatched up. The children were as good as
possible. They never cried nor made the least fuss, but composed
themselves in the deck-house to sleep for the remainder of the night,
as if it were all a matter of course. When I went to see them, little
Muriel remarked: 'If the yacht is on fire, mamma, had not baby and I
better get our ulsters, and go with Emma in the boat to the hotel, to
be out of the way?' It is the third time in their short lives that
they have been picked out of bed in the middle of the night and
carried off in blankets away from a fire, so I suppose they are
getting quite used to it.
There can be no doubt that the preservation of the yacht from very
serious damage, if not from complete destruction, was due to the
prompt and efficient manner in which the _extincteurs_ were used. It
was not our first experience of the value of this invention; for, not
very long before we undertook our present expedition, a fire broke out
in our house in London, on which occasion the _extincteurs_ we
fortunately had at hand rendered most excellent service in subduing
the flames.
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