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.They talked among themselves about the fighting and how what had happened to Uisbank had been foretold.Wasn't Uisbank one of those God-damned priest lovers? Always calling on "He Who Eats" for guidance and all that.It just went to show that the heretics were right."He Who Eats" had less power than the older gods.Wrapped up in such concerns, their first intimation of trouble came from the sudden odor of paraffin wafting in on the breeze.Heads came up, and they stared out into the dark."What is that smell?" said a voice."That be oil of black tar.I remember it from Pangifica."Out on the starboard side, something dimly visible was in motion."Ahoy there, what ship?"A dark shape was appearing, a small vessel, less than a tenth Growler's size.She was just a couple of hundred yards away, and her sails were painted black."What ship goes there?" roared the lookout."Away on the starboard side, a ship!"By then Captain Shuzt was on deck and had grasped the peril."Cut anchor!" he bawled.Feet thundered on the deck."Cut that anchor, get on with it now!" The officers were frantic.Old Pebbles was close enough to be seen, so close that her embrace was inevitable.That was why the Dronned shipwrights had spent the day working on Pebbles's prow, where she now sported a sharp beak covered in a sheet of steel from Graedon's furnace.A lantern had been run up the yard to throw more light out onto the dark stranger, and they saw that it was too late by far.Long before they could saw through the anchor cables, the cog was going to strike amidships."Belay that order, leave the anchor cables.Prepare to board the enemy."But it really was too late.A few moments later the cog arrived, and a sharp shudder ran through the bigger ship as the ram stove in the timbers at the waterline with the suicidal fury of a bee."Man the pumps!" was the cry, and crewmembers were already in motion when it came.The enemy crew was diving overboard and swimming away, all but one, who bent down and pulled out a darkened lantern, opened it to expose the flame, then lit a length of oil-soaked rope.He tossed the rope into the hold.Almost instantly the paraffin vapor in the hold caught fire and a blue flare of flame shot up.Then the bales ignited.The pitch-covered sails caught next, and in a few seconds were a sheet of flame.The rising conflagration bathed the ends of the yards of the mainmast.The furled sails caught fire while men climbed screaming into the rigging to try and douse them.Meanwhile, the roaring flames from the cog's hold were scorching the side of the Growler in the most villainous way.The paint had peeled away, and the timbers were blackening.Desperate men threw buckets of water down the side, but it was too little too late.The main yard was well and truly alight.A man fell, screaming from the yard and slapped the main deck.Flaming fragments fell from the yard and men ran hither and yon with shrieks as they stamped them out.Now the side of the ship was catching fire.Black smoke was filling the carpenter's walk inside the hull and seeping into the cabins and storerooms belowdecks.More men were there throwing water on the timbers.And the cog still burned with unlimited fury.The Growler's upper yards were alight, and men were scrambling down, trying to avoid the fire that was consuming the mainsail.Some rigging fell with a crash of tackle and blocks.A man was knocked off the siderail and fell to the sea with a wail.Then came a loud, horrified shout.The flames had taken hold on the top yard of the mizzenmast.More men went scrambling above to try and stop them.Men ran, scrambled, hurled buckets, and ran again, but still the cog's deadly cargo sent up sheets of scorching fire that had not only blackened Growler's side but had ignited the hatches and their frame timbers.Now fire exploded out of a stores locker on the main deck, where an ember had set light to dried, folded sails.Captain Shuzt howled for help as he ran to fight the fire himself with an ax, knocking down the blazing planks of the locker and hauling out the sails and hurling them overboard, still blazing and smoking.The fire on the main yard was out of control though, and it set the mast above it alight.In moments the yards on the foremast caught, too, and the disaster was complete.A wooden ship is always vulnerable to fire, her masts and rigging can easily catch and her hull is by necessity dry and waterproof.Now the Growler began to go, and though the fire that scorched her side timbers never actually went past that, the flames that fell from the burning masts took hold first here and then over there, and before long the ship was ablaze from one end to the other
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