sure that the owner would not approve of our being treated in this
frivolous way."

"I'm afraid the matter is out of owner's hand, for the present," said
the Steam, slipping into the condenser. "You're left to your own
devices till the weather betters."

"I would n't mind the weather," said a flat bass voice below; "it's
this confounded cargo that's breaking my heart. I'm the
garboard-strake, and I'm twice as thick as most of the others, and I
ought to know something."

The garboard-strake is the lowest plate in the bottom of a ship, and
the _Dimbula's_ garboard-strake was nearly three-quarters of an inch
mild steel.

"The sea pushes me up in a way I should never have expected," the
strake grunted, "and the cargo pushes me down, and, between the two, I
don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"When in doubt, hold on," rumbled the Steam, making head in the
boilers.

"Yes; but there's only dark, and cold, and hurry, down here; and how
do I know whether the other plates are doing their duty? Those
bulwark-plates up above, I've heard, ain't more than five-sixteenths
of an inch thick--scandalous, I call it."

"I agree with you," said a huge web-frame by the main cargo-hatch. He
was deeper and thicker than all the others, and curved half-way across
the ship in the shape of half an arch, to support the deck where deck
beams would have been in the way of cargo coming up and down. "I work
entirely unsupported, and I observe that I am the sole strength of
this vessel, so far as my vision extends. The responsibility, I assure
you, is enormous. I believe the money-value of the cargo is over one
hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Think of that!"

"And every pound of it is dependent on my personal exertions." Here
spoke a sea-valve that communicated directly with the water outside,
and was seated not very far from the garboard-strake. "I rejoice to
think that I am a Prince-Hyde Valve, with best Para rubber facings.
Five patents cover me--I mention this without pride--five separate and
several patents, each one finer than the other. At present I am
screwed fast. Should I open, you would immediately be swamped. This is
incontrovertible!"

Patent things always use the longest words they can. It is a trick
that they pick up from their inventors.

"That's news," said a big centrifugal bilge-pump. "I had an idea that
you were employed to clean decks and things with. At least, I've used
you for that more than once. I forget the