au's crew were burnin' to testify about food, an' there was a
note o' Calder to the Board, in regard to the tail-shaft, that would ha'
been vara damagin' if it had come into court. They knew better than to
fight.

"Syne the Kite came back, an' McRimmon paid off me an' Bell personally,
an' the rest of the crew pro rata, I believe it's ca'ed. My share--oor
share, I should say--was just twenty-five thousand pound sterlin'."

At this point Janet jumped up and kissed him.

"Five-and-twenty thousand pound sterlin'. Noo, I'm fra the North, and
I'm not the like to fling money awa' rashly, but I'd gie six months'
pay--one hunder an' twenty pounds--to know who flooded the engine-room
of the Grotkau. I'm fairly well acquaint wi' McRimmon's eediosyncrasies,
and he'd no hand in it. It was not Calder, for I've asked him, an' he
wanted to fight me. It would be in the highest degree unprofessional o'
Calder--not fightin', but openin' bilge-cocks--but for a while I thought
it was him. Ay, I judged it might be him--under temptation."

"What's your theory?" I demanded.

"Weel, I'm inclined to think it was one o' those singular providences
that remind us we're in the hands o' Higher Powers.".

"It couldn't open and shut itself?"

"I did not mean that; but some half-starvin' oiler or, maybe, trimmer
must ha' opened it awhile to mak' sure o' leavin' the Grotkau. It's a
demoralisin' thing to see an engine-room flood up after any accident to
the gear--demoralisin' and deceptive both. Aweel, the man got what
he wanted, for they went aboard the liner cryin' that the Grotkau was
sinkin'. But it's curious to think o' the consequences. In a' human
probability, he's bein' damned in heaps at the present moment aboard
another tramp freighter; an' here am I, wi' five-an'-twenty thousand
pound invested, resolute to go to sea no more--providential's the
preceese word--except as a passenger, ye'll understand, Janet."

* * * * *

McPhee kept his word. He and Janet went for a voyage as passengers in
the first-class saloon. They paid seventy pounds for their berths; and
Janet found a very sick woman in the second-class saloon, so that for
sixteen days she lived below, and chatted with the stewardesses at the
foot of the second-saloon stairs while her patient slept. McPhee was a
passenger for exactly twenty-four hours. Then the engineers' mess--where
the oilcloth tables are--joyfully took him to its bosom, and for the
rest of the voy