in and out the weltering 'tween-decks,
waving loathsome feelers as though in mockery of human efforts!

Like a war-whoop to the onslaught the dynamos of the salvage vessel
start motion, and hum in _crescendo_ to a high tenor tone; the
vibrations of their speed and cycle are joined in conduct to the empty
hull of the wreck, and she quickens with a throb and stir as of her
arteries coursing. There is no preparatory trickle at outboard end of
the hose ejections; with a rush and roar, a clean, solid flood pours
over, an uninterrupted cascade at seven tons from each per minute!

The carpenter sounds the depth with rod and chalked lanyard, then lowers
a tethered float to water-level of the flooded compartment. In this way
he sets a starting mark for the competition, a gauge for the throw of
the pumps. In interest with the issue, the salvage men gather round the
hatchway, and all eyes are turned to the bobbing cork disc to note the
progress of the contest. Stirring and drifting to slack of the line, the
float seems serenely indifferent to its important motion; wayward and
buoyant, it trims, this way and that, then steadies suddenly on a taut
restraint; slowly it seems to rise in the water as though drawn by an
invisible hand. It spins a little to lay of the cord, then hangs,
moisture dropping and forming rings on the glassy surface of the well!
By no seeming effort but the pulse-like quiver of the hose, the level
falls away. A bolt-head on the plating shows under water, then tips an
upper edge above; a minute later the round is exposed and drying in a
slant of the sun.

The tense regard with which we have scanned the guide-mark gives way to
jest and relief when it is seen that drainage is assured; a facetious
mechanic at the hose-end makes motions as of pulling a bar handle to
draw a foaming glass. "Sop it up, old sport!" says the rigger, patting
the pipes. "Sop it up an' spit! Ol' Neptune ain't arf thusty!"

During our engagement, _Titan_ has not been idle. There remains only an
hour or two of flood tide and much has to be done. Leaving steam-pumps
to cope with the more moderate leakage at the after section, she has
hauled forward on the rising tide on the shoal side of the wreck. At the
bows she has applied suction to the prisoned water in the fore holds,
and a new stream pours overside in foaming ejection. The roar and throb
of her power motors adds further volume and vibration to the rousing
treatment by which the nerve