ds will see you
through."

"Birds will do a fat lot. Birds sent me to work up a connection in the
Mexican Gulf, and I've done it, and they've raised my screw two pound a
month after four years' service. I jettison the customers' cargo, and
probably sha'n't be able to pay for half of it. Customers will get mad,
and give their business to other lines which don't run foul of blazing
emigrant packets."

"Birds would never dare to fire you out for that."

"Oh, Lord, no! They'd say: 'We don't like the way you've taken to wear
your back hair, Captain. And, besides, we want younger blood amongst our
skippers. You'll find your check ready for you in the outer office.
Mind the step!'"

"I'm awfully sorry, Skipper. If there's anything I can do, sir--"

Captain Kettle sighed, and looked drearily out at the blazing ship and
the tumbled waste of sea on which she floated. But he felt that he had
been showing weakness, and pulled himself together again smartly. "Yes,
there is, my lad. I'm a disappointed man, and I've been talking a lot
more than's dignified. You'll do me a real kindness if you'll forget all
that's been said. Away with you on to the main deck, and get hatches
off, and whip the top tier of that cargo over the side as fast as you
can make the winches travel. If the old _Flamingo_ is going to serve out
free hospitality, by James! she shall do it full weight. By James! I'd
give the beggars champagne and spring mattresses if I'd got 'em."

Meanwhile, those on the German emigrant steamer had seen the coming of
the shabby little English trader with bumping hearts. Till then the
crew, with (so to speak) their backs up against a wall, had fought the
fire with diligence; but when the nearness of a potential rescuer was
reported, they discovered for themselves at once that the fire was
beyond control. They were joined by the stokehold gangs, and they made
at once for the boats, overpowering any officer who happened to come
between them and their desires. The limp, tottery, half-fed, wholly
seasick emigrants they easily shoved aside, and these in their turn by
sheer mass thrust back the small handful of first-class passengers, and
away screamed out the davit tackles, as the boats were lowered full of
madly frightened deck hands and grimy handlers of coal.

Panic had sapped every trace of their manhood. They had concern only
for their own skins; for the miserables remaining on the _Grosser Carl_
they had none. And if for a m