All three cylinders were
white with the salt spray that had come down through the engine-room
hatch; there was white fur on the canvas-bound steam-pipes, and
even the bright-work deep below was speckled and soiled; but the
cylinders had learned to make the most of steam that was half water,
and were pounding along cheerfully.
"How's the noblest outcome of human ingenuity hitting it?" said
the Steam, as he whirled through the engine-room.
"Nothing for nothing in this world of woe," the cylinders answered,
as though they had been working for centuries, "and precious little
for seventy-five pounds head. We've made two knots this last hour
and a quarter! Rather humiliating for eight hundred horse-power,
isn't it?"
"Well, it's better than drifting astern, at any rate. You seem
rather less - how shall I put it - stiff in the back than you
were."
"If you'd been hammered as we've been this night, you wouldn't be
stiff - iff - iff; either. Theoreti - retti - retti - cally, of
course, rigidity is the thing. Purrr - purr - practically, there
has to be a little give and take. We found that out by working on
our sides for five minutes at a stretch - chch - chh.
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