per grinned at him in spite of his uneasiness at letting men go
down there and shrugged his shoulders resignedly.

"Go ahead, both of you. If Gordon's as much at home in the water as I've
seen you, our job is done. Don't know how I forgot your mudlark
proclivities, Little."

There was a glow of enthusiasm on Gordon's face as he followed Little
over the hatch coaming, and Barry thrilled to see it. There was needed
no better proof of the man's complete emancipation from the alcoholic
curse that had made him a willing and pliable tool in Leyden's crooked
schemes. For a moment the skipper watched the two men, not quite
satisfied of their safety, ready in an instant to order them up or go
after them himself, should they get into trouble. But he was soon
reassured. First Little came up, snorted choking mud from his nostrils,
inhaled a breath of clean air, and plunged down again. Gordon followed,
and at the second plunge both reported having found a leak.

"Holes about an inch across, in groups of five in a space as big as a
plate, skipper," gasped Little, resting before taking another dive
farther forward. Gordon had found a similar leak; and another search
discovered a series of such places running half the length of the ship.

"Holy smoke!" growled Barry in wonderment. "Must have had twenty water
rats working on her to do that in such a short time. Rolfe must have
been dreaming not to hear anything."

But Rolfe and Bill Blunt were away in the boats, picking up the upstream
anchor which could not be hove in, simply because the ship could not be
brought over it. And watching their arduous labor, Barry put aside his
rising irritation and postponed the warm reproof he was bursting to hurl
at them. Instead, he set men busily to work making plugs for the holes,
and when the pumps were still for the moment he dropped into a canoe
alongside and paddled down to join the boats.

"Got it, hey?" he remarked, nodding with approval as Blunt's boat hauled
the great anchor dripping between his boat and Rolfe's, where the mate's
crew made it fast, swinging on both gunwales by a baulk of timber laid
across, ready to be either let go again, or taken under the brigantine's
bows and hove up with the windlass.

"She sartainly sucks hard, sir," said Blunt, straightening his broad
back and taking out a huge plug of tobacco. "If that there mud sticks to
th' ship like it stuck to this yer mudhook, then we'll need sheer-legs
to raise her, Cap'