Then Bell said: 'They'll not trust themselves - one
of 'em - in this waiter - except Kinloch, an' I'll no spare him.'
"'The more salvage to me, then,' I said. 'I'll make shift solo.'
"Says one dock-rat, at this: 'D' ye think she's safe?'
"'I'll guarantee ye nothing,' I said, 'except maybe a hammerin' for
keepin' me this long.'
"Then he sings out: 'There's no more than one lifebelt, an' they
canna find it, or I'd come.'
"'Throw him over, the Jezebel,' I said, for I was oot o' patience;
an' they took haud o' that volunteer before he knew what was in
store, and hove him over, in the bight of my life-line. So I e'en
hauled him upon the sag of it, hand over fist - a vara welcome
recruit when I'd tilted the salt watter oot of him: for, by the
way, he could na swim.
"Syne they bent a twa-inch rope to the life-line, an' a hawser to
that, an' I led the rope o'er the drum of a hand-winch forward, an'
we sweated the hawser inboard an' made it fast to the Grotkau's
bitts.
"Bell brought the Kite so close I feared she'd roll in an' do the
Grotkau's plates a mischief. He hove anither life-line to me, an'
went astern, an' we had all the weary winch work to do again wi' a
second hawser.
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