the engineer; but it only dented the
tug's rail, and with these compliments the two craft separated, the tug
steaming back to her scows.

"That lessens our chance just so much," growled Elisha, as he joined
the rest. "Now we can't do all we agreed to."

"Keep dead-reckonin', 'Lisha," said Martin; "dat's good 'nough for us;
an', say, can't you take sights by a watch--jess for a bluff, to show
in de log-book?"

"Might; 't wouldn't be reliable. Good enough, though, for log-book
testimony. That's what I'll do."

Inch by inch they gathered in their cable and coiled it down, unmoved
by the protesting toots of the steamer's whistle. When half of it lay
on the deck, the steamer slowed down, while her crew worked at their
end of the rope; then she went ahead, the schooner dropped back to
nearly the original distance, and they saw a long stretch of new Manila
hawser leading out from the bridle and knotted to their cable. They
cursed and shook their fists, but pumped manfully on the windlass, and
by nightfall had brought the knot over their bows by means of a
"messenger," and were heaving on the new hawser.

"Weakens our case just that much more," growled Elisha. "We were to
furnish the tow-line."

"Heave away, my boys!" said Martin. "Dey's only so many ropes aboard
her, an' when we get 'em all we've got dat boat an' dem men."

So they warped their craft across the Western Ocean. Knot after knot,
hawser after hawser, came over the bows and cumbered the deck.

They would have passed them over the stern as fast as they came in,
were they not salvors with litigation ahead; for their hands must be
clean when they entered their claim, and to this end Elisha chalked out
the longitude daily at noon and showed it to the steamer, always
receiving a thankful acknowledgment on the whistle. He secured the
figures by his dead-reckoning; but the carefully kept log-book also
showed longitude by chronometer sights, taken when the sun shone, with
his old quadrant and older watch, and corrected to bring a result
plausibly near to that of the reckoning by log and compass. But the
log-book contained no reference to the loss of the chronometer. That
was to happen at the last.

On stormy days, when the sea rose, they dared not shorten their
tow-line, and the steamer-folk made sure that it was long enough to
eliminate the risk of its parting. So these days were passed in
idleness and profanity; and when the sea went down they would go to
wor