ou wouldn't talk of Rosewarne's
doing me a favour." He paused and laughed, not aloud but grimly.
"The _One-and-All's_ insured, Miss Marvin, and pretty heavily over her
value. I'd take it as a kindness if you found someone fool enough to
insure _me_ for a trip in her."

"I don't understand."

"No, I reckon you don't. They finished loading her last night, and we
moored her out in the channel, ready for the tug this morning.
Before midnight she was leaking there like a basket, and by seven this
morning she was leaking worse than a five-barred gate. The tug had just
time to pluck us alongside here, or she'd have sunk at her moorings; and
when we'd warped her steady and the tide left her, the water poured out of
a hole I could shove my hand through--not the seams, mark you, though they
leaked bad enough--but a hole where the china-stone had fairly knocked her
open; and the timber all round it as rotten as cheese. All day, between
tides, they've been sheathing it over, and packing the worst places in her
seams; and to-night the crew, being all Troy men, are taking one more
sleep ashore than they bargained for. They want it, too, after their
spell at the pumps."

"Then why are you left on board?"

"Mainly because I've no home to go to; and somebody must act
night-watchman. The skipper himself has bustled ashore with the rest.
I reckon this morning's work scared him a bit, hand-in-glove though he is
with Rosewarne; but he must be recovering, because just before stepping
off he warned me against putting up the riding-light. There's no chance
of anyone fouling us where we lie, and we can save two-penn'orth of oil."

"But you don't tell me Mr. Rosewarne sends his ships to sea, knowing them
to be rotten?"

He hunched his shoulders. "Maybe he does; maybe he don't. It don't
matter to me, the man's going to hell or not. But you seem to think I
take his wages as a favour."

"Then why do you take them at all, at such a risk?"

"Because," he burst out, "you've come here and driven my mother to an
almshouse, and I must earn money to get her out of it. If I'd a-known you
was coming here with your education, I'd have picked up some of it and
been prepared for you. A mate's certificate doesn't mean much in these
days. Men like Rosewarne want a skipper who'll earn insurance-money and
save oil. Still, I could have tried. But, like a fool, I was young and
in a good berth, and let my chances slip; and then you came along