edicament, sir, as disconcerting as any
my experience supplies."

CHAPTER XXXIV

CAPTAIN COLENSO

"But what be us to do with the balloon, sir?" the coxswain demanded.

Had it been my affair, I believe I should have obeyed a ridiculous
impulse and begged them to keep it for their trouble; so weary was I of
the machine. Byfield, however, directed them to slit a seam of the oiled
silk and cut away the car, which was by this time wholly submerged and
not to be lifted. At once the _Lunardi_ collapsed and became manageable;
and having roped it to a ring-bolt astern, the crew fell to their oars.

My teeth were chattering. These operations of salvage had taken time,
and it took us a further unconscionable time to cover the distance
between us and the brig as she lay hove-to, her maintopsail aback and
her headsails drawing.

"Feels like towing a whale, sir," the oarsman behind me panted.

I whipped round. The voice--yes, and the face--were the voice and face
of the seaman who sat and steered us: the voice English, of a sort; the
face of no pattern that I recognised for English. The fellows were as
like as two peas: as like as the two drovers Sim and Candlish had been:
you might put them both at forty; grizzled men, pursed about the eyes
with seafaring. And now that I came to look, the three rowers forward,
though mere lads, repeated their elders' features and build; the gaunt
frame, the long, serious face, the swarthy complexion and meditative
eye--in short, Don Quixote of la Mancha at various stages of growth. Men
and lads, I remarked, wore silver earrings.

I was speculating on this likeness when we shipped oars and fell
alongside the brig's ladder. At the head of it my hand was taken, and I
was helped on deck with ceremony by a tall man in loose blue jacket and
duck trousers: an old man, bent and frail; by his air of dignity, the
master of the vessel, and by his features as clearly the patriarch of
the family. He lifted his cap and addressed us with a fine but (as I now
recall it) somewhat tired courtesy.

"An awkward adventure, gentlemen."

We thanked him in proper form.

"I am pleased to have been of service. The pilot-cutter yonder could
hardly have fetched you in less than twenty minutes. I have signalled
her alongside, and she will convey you back to Falmouth; none the worse,
I hope, for your wetting."

"A convenience," said I, "of which my friends will gladly avail
themselves. For my part, I do no