in for another spell wi' the sledge, so we'll have
to tackle the subject another time, Mr Wright."

Thus speaking, Vulcan seized the ponderous hammer in his powerful grasp
and proceeded to beat form into a mass of glowing metal with much
greater ease than he had been able to thump telegraphy into his own
brain.

In the discovery of the "fault" and the cutting out of the injured part
of the cable, twenty-six hours were lost. During all the time Captain
Anderson was obliged to remain on deck, while the minds and bodies of
the engineers and electricians were subjected to a severe strain for the
same period. They had scarcely begun to breathe freely again, and to
congratulate each other on being able to continue the voyage, when they
received another shock of alarm by the cable suddenly flying off the
drum, while it was being transferred from the picking-up machinery in
the bow to the paying-out arrangements in the stern. Before the
machinery could be stopped, some fathoms of cable had become entangled
among the wheels and destroyed. This part having been cut out, however,
and new splices made, the paying-out process was resumed.

"I'll turn in now and have a snooze, Robin," said Ebenezer Smith, "and
you had better do the same; you look tired."

This was indeed true, for not a man or boy in the ship took a more
anxious interest in the cable than did our little hero; he had begun to
regard it as a living creature, and to watch over it, and dream about
it, as if it were a dear friend in extreme danger. The enthusiastic boy
was actually becoming careworn and thin, for he not only performed all
the duties required of him with zealous application, but spent his
leisure, and much of the time that should have been devoted to rest, in
the careful study of his idol--intensely watching it, and all that was
in the remotest way connected with it.

"You're a goose," said Stumps, in passing, when he heard Robin decline
to retire as Smith had advised him.

"It may be so, and if so, Stumps, I shall continue to cackle a little
longer on deck while they are examining the fault."

That examination, when finished, produced a considerable sensation. The
process was conducted in private. The condemned portion was cut in
junks and tested, until the faulty junk was discovered. This was
untwisted until the core was laid bare, and when about a foot of it had
been so treated, the cause of evil was discovered, drawing from the
onlooke