ur course
again?"

"No; I suppose not, sir," replied Bryce, in a tone of voice which very
sufficiently indicated his supreme indifference.

"Very well," said the skipper, "man the--"

"Excuse me, Captain Blyth, but may I offer a suggestion?" interrupted
Mr Gaunt.

"Assuredly, my dear sir," responded the skipper; "what suggestion would
you offer?"

"Well," said Mr Gaunt, "if I may be permitted to say so, it seems a
great pity to leave that fine ship there, to be possibly run into by and
perhaps to occasion the loss of another ship; or, as an alternative, to
eventually founder. So far as I could perceive, the hull is as sound
and tight as ever it was, and, by the way she floats, I do not believe
she has very much water in her; and with regard to her spars, her fore
and main-topgallant masts are snapped off short by the caps, which
appears to be about all the damage done in that direction. Now, why
should you not right her, pump her out, man her, and send her into port?
If her cargo is valuable, as is likely to be the case, it would put a
handsome sum of salvage money into your pocket."

"So it would, sir," replied the skipper. "I was thinking of that just
now, but couldn't exactly see how the thing is to be done; and as Mr
Bryce seemed to have no idea of any such thing, why I concluded it must
be impracticable."

"By no means, I should say," observed Mr Gaunt. "We engineers, you
know, are constantly accomplishing things which other people would be
disposed to pronounce impossible; and I confess I see no great
difficulty in this case. I believe the barque is only held down in her
present position by the weight of the water in her canvas."

Mr Gaunt then indicated to the skipper the means which he thought would
be likely to prove successful; and Captain Blyth, though somewhat
doubtful of the result, was sufficiently impressed to express his
willingness to try the experiment, Mr Gaunt volunteering--to his wife's
secret dismay--to assist by taking charge of a small working party on
board the derelict.

To work all hands accordingly went. The gig once more shoved off for
the barque, which was boarded by the energetic engineer and four men,
who took with them a coil of light line, an axe, and, of course, their
clasp knives. The little party got out on the weather side of the ship,
in the main-chains, uncoiled their line, and were then all ready to
commence operations. The gig, meanwhile, returned to the ship