dicial discount to be made that will meet the
conflicting demands of the expenses department and the results
committee. Above all, he must be of an infinite patience, of the mettle
that is not readily discouraged. In the great game of seafaring his hand
holds the king of disappointment and the knaves of frustration and
discouragement. But he has other cards; he holds an ace in stability and
determination.

Calm days and smooth seas may lure him to surpassing effort, to work
through the tides in feverish energy, making the most of favoured
opportunity. The scattered and interrupted work of months has perhaps
been geared and bound, the tackle rigged and set for a final dead lift.
Buoyancy is figured out and assured; the pumps are in place, throbbing
and droning out, throwing steady streams from the weight of water that
so long has held the foundered wreck in depth. The work has been long
and trying, but an end to difficulty is in sight. Given a day or two of
continued fine weather, the sea and the rocks will have to surrender
their prisoner.

Comes a darkling to windward and the sea stirs uneasily; jets and spurts
of broken water appear over the teeth and spit of rocky ledges. The
salvors look around with calculating eyes and note the signs of a
weather break. Still, there is no slackening of effort; there may be
time to complete the work before the sea rises to interfere; if
anything, the omens only call for another spur to the flank, a new sting
to the lash.

Beaten to the knees, the gear and tackle swaying perilously in breaking
seas, the lifting-barges thundering at their curbs, the pumps groaning
and protesting their inability to overcome the lap of blue water, there
is no alternative but to abandon the work and return to harbour. From
the beach the salvage officer may watch his labour of weeks--or
months--savagely undone in an hour or two of storm and fury of the sea!

It is a great catalogue, that schedule of virtues and accomplishments.
To it must be added, as a supplement, that he must be a 'made' man--made
in a long hard pupilage in a stern school that appraises strictly on
results. It is of little use to show that, in theory, a certain course
was right and proper, when the broad but damning fact remains that the
property is still in Davy Jones his locker, and likely--there to remain.
Many are called, but few are chosen. The salvage service has no room for
the merely mediocre officer: the right man goes inev