at you have been saying about mission and that sort of thing is
just so much Greek to me. But do you mean to tell me that you got a
ball through the bottom of your smart brig that night in Havre, and have
never been able to stop the leak?"

"Yes, yes; that is so, my friend. My chief officer has tried everything
that he could do, but we could not get at the place. And look yonder!
The pump has been kept going ever since."

"Well, sir," continued Captain Chubb, "I don't know your first mate, and
I don't want to say hard things of a man who could take that there smart
craft out of the French harbour as he did that night. He is a very fine
sailor, sir. But if I aren't got a carpenter on board this schooner as
would give him ninety out of a hundred and then beat him, without
bringing to work the little bit I knows myself, why, I'm a Dutchman, and
that I aren't."

"Ah!" cried the Count excitedly. "You think--"

"No, sir; I don't say I think anything without having a look. But as
there don't seem to be any fighting going on, and you and the doctor
here turns out to be old friends, why, before you talk of throwing up
your job and taking to your boats--which would be a much more sensible
thing to do than going down with colours flying when there warn't no
need, and setting aside getting some fresh water and provisions into
your boats and making for a place on the West Afric coast--I should just
like to come on board your craft with my man and see what mightn't be
done by stopping that there leak."

"My friend!" cried the Count excitedly, and he caught the skipper by the
hands.

"Well, sir," said the skipper, with a grim smile, "if you are Mr Rodd's
and the doctor's friend and wants to be friends with me, why, Tom Chubb
aren't the man to say no and want to keep enemies. So there's my fin.
But look 'ere, you know," he continued, as he gave the Count's thin
white hand a tremendous grip, "yours was a very queer way of coming upon
us, and might have meant some nasty marks on my white decks. You can't
help being a Frenchman, but do you know what an Englishman would have
done? He'd have just come here civil like and said, `Look here,
strangers, we have sprung a leak, and we are going down. Come and lend
us a hand at the pumps.'"

"Ah, yes, of course," said the Count warmly. "It is what I should have
done."

"And you would like me to come aboard and see if there's anything we can
do?"

"Yes, yes!" cried the Count