k. A short confab
settled this point; a dory was thrown over, and Elisha and Amos pulled
to the steamer, which was now abreast, near enough for the name which
Elisha had read to be seen plainly on the stern, but not near enough
for the men shouting from her taffrail to make themselves heard on the
schooner. Elisha and Amos, in the dory, conferred with these men and
then returned.

"Badly rattled," they reported. "Tiller-ropes parted, an' not a man
aboard can put a long splice in a wire rope, an' o' course we said we
couldn't. They'll take our line, an' we're to chalk up the position an'
the course to New York. Clear case o' salvage. We furnish everything,
an' sacrifice our jury-material to aid 'em."

"What'll be our chance in court, I'm thinkin'," said one, doubtfully.
"Hadn't we better keep out o' the courts? It's been takin' most of our
time lately."

"What's the matter wi' ye?" yelled Elisha. "We owe a few hundreds, an'
mebbe a fine or two; an' there's anywhere from one to two hundred
thousand--hull an' cargo--that we save. We'll get no less than a third,
mebbe more. Go lay down, Bill."

Bill subsided. They knotted four or five dory rodings together, coiled
the long length of rope in the dory, unbent the end of their water-laid
cable from the anchor, and waited until the wallowing steamer had
drifted far enough to leeward to come within the steering-arc of a
craft with no canvas; then they cut away the wreck, crowded forward,
all hands spreading coats to the breeze, and when the schooner had paid
off, steered her down with the wind on the quarter until almost near
enough to hail the steamer, where they rounded to, safe in the
knowledge that she could not drift as fast as the other.

Away went the dory, paying out on the roding, the end of which was
fastened to the disconnected cable, and when it had reached the
steamer, a heaving-line was thrown, by which the roding was hauled
aboard. Then the dory returned, while the steamer's men hauled the
cable to their stern. The bridle, two heavy ropes leading from the
after-winch out the opposite quarter-chocks to the end of the cable,
was quickly rigged by the steamer's crew.

With a warning toot of the whistle, she went ahead, and the long
tow-line swept the sea-tops, tautened, strained, and creaked on the
windlass-bitts, and settled down to its work, while the schooner,
dropping into her wake, was dragged westward at a ten-knot rate.

"This is bully," said Elisha,