n and the coal-trimmer set the pace, and with a fine contempt
for the unhandiness of amateurs did not fail to give a display of their
utmost. Kettle and Dayton-Philipps gamely kept level with them. The
Italian ganger turned out to have his pride also, and did not lag, and
only the free-born British subject from Sierra Leone endeavored to shirk
his due proportion of the toil.

But high-minded theories as to the rights of man were regarded here as
little as threats to lay information before a justice of the peace; and
under the sledge-hammer arguments of shovel blows from whoever happened
to be next to him, the unfortunate colored gentleman descended to the
grade of nigger again (which he had repeatedly sworn never to do), and
toiled and sweated equally with his betters.

The heat under the decks was stifling, and dust rose from the wheat in
choking volumes, but the pace of the circling shovels was never allowed
to slacken. They worked there stripped to trousers, and they understood,
one and all, that they were working for their lives. A breeze had sprung
up almost as soon as the _M'poso_ had steamed away, and hourly it was
freshening: the barometer in the cabin was registering a steady fall;
the sky was banking up with heavy clouds.

Kettle had handled sheets and braces and hove the vessel to so as to
steady her as they worked, but she still labored heavily in the sea, and
beneath them they could hear the leaden swish of water in the floor of
the hold beneath. Their labor was having its effect, and by
infinitesimal gradations they were counteracting the list and getting
the ship upright; but the wind was worsening, and it seemed to them also
that the water was getting deeper under their feet, and that the vessel
rode more sluggishly.

So far the well had not been sounded. It is no use getting alarming
statistics to discourage one's self unnecessarily. But after night had
fallen, and it was impossible to see to work in the gloomy hold any
longer without lamps, Captain Kettle took the sounding-rod and found
eight feet.

He mentioned this when he took down the lanterns into the hold, but he
did not think it necessary to add that as the sounding had been taken
with the well on the slant it was therefore considerably under the
truth. Still he sent Dayton-Philipps and the trimmer on deck to take a
spell at the pumps, and himself resumed his shovel-work alongside
the others.

Straight away on through the night the six me