tank, swiftly passing the cable from hand to hand,
were singing in barbaric monotone to themselves, while we idle ones on
the quarter-deck read a marvellous tale of love and bloodshed to the
monotonous accompaniment of the cable shuffling through the wooden
troughs beside us.

At about four in the afternoon, however, just as we were lazily
deciding to ring for tea, there came a rush of feet from the forward
part of the ship and a jangle of the engine-room's bell meaning "Full
speed astern!" But quick as the ship was in coming to a standstill,
and quick as were the Signal Corps men in stopping the machinery, the
cable itself was quicker, and in less time than it takes to tell it,
a tangle of cable in the tanks blocked the drum, causing so tremendous
a strain that the cable broke, the end going overboard.

We were all sick at heart, none more so than the poor Filipino who
had been knocked flat by the cable on its erratic departure from the
tank. Fortunately, the native was more frightened than hurt, and not
many moments later joined in a game of monte with his friends not on
duty at the time. The cable laying machinery was then transformed
into a grappling machine, and by half past seven that evening the
strain on the dynamometer showed we had in all probability hooked
something. An hour later the end was on board, and by midnight a
satisfactory splice had been made by a sergeant of the Signal Corps,
in charge of such work, and his band of native cable splicers. Then
sufficient tests were made to ascertain if the joint were perfect,
that is, if the insulation of the new piece of cable, when added to
that already laid, gave the right answer.

Meanwhile some one ascertained our position with a sextant, these
observations being marked on the cable map and entered in the log to
facilitate the work of locating and repairing the splice in case of
accident at that particular point, though it must be confessed that
these splices often proved more sound than the original cable. After
this data had been duly registered, the bight was lowered over the side
of the ship and we were again under way, "dragging our tail behind us"
like the poetical sheep of the nursery rhyme.

Everything worked perfectly after this, and we arrived off the
Dumaguete buoy the following afternoon. On sighting it, a boat was
lowered, in which our "able cable seaman," as we called him, with
his crew of native "buoy jumpers," set forth to fasten the cable