"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 precise number, in thousands,
of gallons which I am guaranteed to throw per hour; but I assure you,
my complaining friends, that there is not the least danger. I alone am
capable of clearing any water that may find its way here. By my Biggest
Deliveries, we pitched then!"

The sea was getting up in workmanlike style. It was a dead westerly
gale, blown from under a ragged opening of green sky, narrowed on all
sides by fat, grey clouds; and the wind bit like pincers as it fretted
the spray into lacework on the flanks of the waves.

"I tell you what it is," the foremast telephoned down its wire-stays.
"I'm up here, and I can take a dispassionate view of things. There's an
organised conspiracy against us. I'm sure of it, because every single
one of these waves is heading directly for our bows. The whole sea is
concerned in it--and so's the wind. It's awful!"

"What's awful?" said a wave, drowning the capstan for the hundredth
time.

"This organised conspiracy on your part," the capstan gurgled, taking
his cue from the mast. "Organised bubbles and spindrift! There has been
a depression in the Gulf of Mexico.