inimise the guilt
of hard swearing and to appease his conscience for having offended the
God of the British people, as soon as it was uttered the pilot begged
forgiveness, and then poured forth his anger in a flow of strong French
adjectives. The crew, being well trained and accustomed to perils of
this nature, did their part of the necessary work irrespective of
orders. They saw, however, that trouble would come to them if the
master could not be persuaded to forget that the cable chain was
overboard, so they induced Matt to go and offer to give him a spell,
and to everybody's surprise he was willing to give the steering into
the hands of his mate, who knew as well as either himself or the pilot
the way into the harbour.

The seas broke heavily over her until she entered the mouth of the
harbour. A crowd of their fellow-townsmen from other vessels had come
on to the pier with the object of rendering any assistance they could,
and by their goodness and skill she was moored without the necessity of
letting go the anchors or even breaking a ropeyarn. Plunker was very
grateful to these fine fellows for the valuable service they had
rendered. They knew that he was never effusive about any favours
conferred upon him, so were content to receive a plain "Thank you." The
local sailormen of that time used to caricature him running in confused
frenzy from side to side of the quarterdeck with the tiller, and
imitate the pilot and himself haranguing each other to keep cool, and
immediately afterwards breaking out into violent attacks on each
other's capacity for giving and receiving orders.

This strange being, at a time when he was passing through the peril of
facing death, never lost the power of making his men feel that he was
above their level. Even his undignified altercations with the pilot,
and his mixed erratic exclamations on the subject that obviously
troubled him, in no way diminished the awe in which he was regarded.

The vessel was moored alongside the quay, and great care was used in
having the fenders properly placed, so that her aged planking would be
preserved from chafing. Had she been the king's yacht, no greater
attention could have been given to prevent this.

[Illustration: "THERE WERE MANY CALLERS."]

The following morning there were many callers alongside, and many
congratulations offered to the captain and his crew on a safe
deliverance. There were shipbrokers, shipmasters, seamen and all grades
of do