across our tow-rope! We were that near--ay,
we were that near! Bell fetched the Kite round with the jerk that came
close to tearin' the bitts out o' the Grotkau, an' I mind I thanked
my Maker in young Bannister's cabin when we were inside Plymouth
breakwater.

"The first to come aboard was McRimmon, wi' Dandie. Did I tell you our
orders were to take anything we found into Plymouth? The auld deil had
just come down overnight, puttin' two an' two together from what Calder
had told him when the liner landed the Grotkau's men. He had preceesely
hit oor time. I'd hailed Bell for something to eat, an' he sent it o'er
in the same boat wi' McRimmon, when the auld man came to me. He grinned
an' slapped his legs and worked his eyebrows the while I ate.

"'How do Holdock, Steiner & Chase feed their men?' said he.

"'Ye can see,' I said, knockin' the top off another beer-bottle. 'I did
not sign to be starved, McRimmon.'

"'Nor to swum, either,' said he, for Bell had tauld him how I carried
the line aboard. 'Well, I'm thinkin' you'll be no loser. What freight
could we ha' put into the Lammergeyer would equal salvage on four hunder
thousand pounds--hull an' cargo? Eh, McPhee? This cuts the liver out
o' Holdock, Steiner, Chase & Company, Limited. Eh, McPhee? An' I'm
sufferin' from senile dementia now? Eh, MCPhee? An' I'm not daft, am I,
till I begin to paint the Lammergeyer? Eh, McPhee? Ye may weel lift
your leg, Dandie! I ha' the laugh o' them all. Ye found watter in the
engine-room?'

"'To speak wi'oot prejudice,' I said, 'there was some watter.'

"'They thought she was sinkin' after the propeller went. She filled wi'
extraordinary rapeedity. Calder said it grieved him an' Bannister to
abandon her.'

"I thought o' the dinner at Radley's, an' what like o' food I'd eaten
for eight days.

"'It would grieve them sore,' I said.

"'But the crew would not hear o' stayin' and workin' her back under
canvas. They're gaun up an' down sayin' they'd ha' starved first.'

"'They'd ha' starved if they'd stayed,' said I.

"'I tak' it, fra Calder's account, there was a mutiny a'most.'

"'Ye know more than I, McRimmon' I said. 'Speakin' wi'oot prejudice, for
we're all in the same boat, who opened the bilgecock?'

"'Oh, that's it--is it?' said the auld man, an' I could see he was
surprised. 'A bilge-cock, ye say?'

"'I believe it was a bilge-cock. They were all shut when I came aboard,
but some one had flooded the engine-room eight fe