She'll be up in half an hour!'
"'Gowk!' I said, 'an' we blazin' here wi' all oor lights. Oh, Bell,
ye're a fool!'
"He tumbled off the bridge forward, an' I tumbled aft, an' before
ye could wink our lights were oot, the engine-room hatch was covered,
an' we lay pitch-dark, watchin' the lights o' the liner come up that
the Grotkau'd been signallin' to. Twenty knot an hour she came,
every cabin lighted, an' her boats swung awa'. It was grandly done,
an' in the inside of an hour. She stopped like Mrs. Holdock's
machine; down went the gangway, down went the boats, an' in ten
minutes we heard the passengers cheerin', an' awa' she fled.
"'They'll tell o' this all the days they live,' said Bell. 'A
rescue at sea by night, as pretty as a play. Young Bannister an'
Calder will be drinkin' in the saloon, an' six months hence the
Board o' Trade 'll gie the skipper a pair o' binoculars. It's
vara philanthropic all round.'
"We'll lay by till day - ye may think we waited for it wi' sore
eyes an' there sat the Grotkau, her nose a bit cocked, just leerin'
at us. She looked paifectly ridiculous.
"'She'll be fillin' aft,' says Bell; 'for why is she down by the
stern? The tail-shaft's punched a hole in her, an' - we 've no
boats.
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