ld me that I could make
a patch with sails over the bottom of your brig so as to keep her afloat
as I have, I should have felt ready to call him a fool. It's a wonder
to me that you kept her afloat as you did, before you came to us for
help."

"But now, captain," cried the Count, as his son looked anxiously on, "is
it possible, away from a shipyard, to mend this as well as you have done
the other injury?"

"Well, sir, if we were close to some port I should say, no, certainly
not; but seeing where we are, there's only one thing to be done."

"Yes? And that--?" cried the Count.

"Do it, sir. But it will take some time."

The Count made an impatient gesticulation, and then threw his hands
apart in a deprecating way, as if he accepted the position in despair.

"Yes," he said; "you brave Englishmen, you never give up. You will do
it, then?"

"Oh yes, sir; we've got to do it; and what do they say? Time and tide
wait for no man; so I'll thank you all to clear off and let me and my
lads get to work. Only look here, sir; there's going to be no hoisting
and lowering here. We shall have to keep the brig lying on her side
without any temporary patches, and the tide will have to flow in and
out, even if it does some damage to your stores. So while my lads are
stripping off the copper, you will keep your men busy with your hatches
open to make a pretty good clearance inside, so that we can work in
there as well as out here."

"Yes, yes," said the Count, who seemed to quite resign himself in full
obedience to the skipper's wishes. "But you will use all the speed you
can?"

"You may trust me for that, sir," said Captain Chubb; for after two or
three attempts in the early parts of the proceedings connected with the
repairs, and saying Monsieur le Count, the blunt Englishman gave it up
in favour of plain straightforward "sir," and stuck to it; while the
titled captain seemed to like the Englishman none the less.

"Now," said the captain, as he climbed back on to the sloping deck,
following the others, "I didn't know that your brig would be so bad as
this, but I had my suspicions, and when I have not been busy here I have
been casting my eye round for a good crooked bit of timber that would
make a ship's knee if I wanted one."

"And do you know where there is one?"

"Yes," said the skipper; "and I think it will make a very good
makeshift, for the wood's as hard as hard. But what wouldn't I give for
a good old cro