From what we have learned so far,
though it is very little indeed, I feel reasonably sure that this
steamer ahead of us is the Scotian or the Arran, and I don't care much
which it is. But why has she stopped her screw, or reduced her speed to
four knots?"
"That is a question that can only be answered an hour or two hence, if
ever," replied the first lieutenant.
"But it is a very important question all the same," added Christy.
"I doubt if the Bronx is making four knots at the present moment," said
Flint, as he went to the end of the bridge, and looked down into the
water.
"In changing the fires in the furnaces, Mr. Sampson had been obliged to
clear them out in part, and that has reduced the pressure of steam; but
we shall soon have the usual head," said Christy, as he went to the
speaking tube and communicated with the chief engineer.
He was informed that his explanation was correct in regard to the coal,
and that in a very short time the boilers would have a full head of
steam. Christy spent the next few minutes in an earnest study of the
scarcely perceptible outline of the steamer in the fog. He was hardly
wiser when he had finished his examination than before.
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