in and out in the darkness with their lights burning
bright, a great plashing of propellers, rattling of winches, and a lot
of hailing on the pier-heads. I watched the procession of head-lights
gliding high and of green lights gliding low in the night, when suddenly
a red gleam flashed at me, vanished, came into view again, and remained.
The fore-end of a steamer loomed up close. I shouted down the cabin,
'Come up, quick!' and then heard a startled voice saying afar in the
dark, 'Stop her, sir.' A bell jingled. Another voice cried warningly,
'We are going right into that barque, sir.' The answer to this was a
gruff 'All right,' and the next thing was a heavy crash as the steamer
struck a glancing blow with the bluff of her bow about our fore-rigging.
There was a moment of confusion, yelling, and running about. Steam
roared. Then somebody was heard saying, 'All clear, sir.'... 'Are
you all right?' asked the gruff voice. I had jumped forward to see the
damage, and hailed back, 'I think so.' 'Easy astern,' said the gruff
voice. A bell jingled. 'What steamer is that?' screamed Mahon. By that
time she was no more to us than a bulky shadow maneuvering a little
way off. They shouted at us some name--a woman's name, Miranda or
Melissa--or some such thing. 'This means another month in this beastly
hole,' said Mahon to me, as we peered with lamps about the splintered
bulwarks and broken braces. 'But where's the captain?'

"We had not heard or seen anything of him all that time. We went aft to
look. A doleful voice arose hailing somewhere in the middle of the dock,
'_Judea_ ahoy!'... How the devil did he get there?... 'Hallo!' we
shouted. 'I am adrift in our boat without oars,' he cried. A belated
waterman offered his services, and Mahon struck a bargain with him for
half-a-crown to tow our skipper alongside; but it was Mrs. Beard that
came up the ladder first. They had been floating about the dock in that
mizzly cold rain for nearly an hour. I was never so surprised in my
life.

"It appears that when he heard my shout 'Come up,' he understood at once
what was the matter, caught up his wife, ran on deck, and across,
and down into our boat, which was fast to the ladder. Not bad for a
sixty-year-old. Just imagine that old fellow saving heroically in his
arms that old woman--the woman of his life. He set her down on a thwart,
and was ready to climb back on board when the painter came adrift
somehow, and away they went together. Of c