ble part of the ship."

The Steam did not say that he had whispered the very same thing to every
single piece of iron aboard. There is no sense in telling too much.

And all that while the little Dimbula pitched and chopped, and swung
and slewed, and lay down as though she were going to die, and got up as
though she had been stung, and threw her nose round and round in circles
half a dozen times as she dipped, for the gale was at its worst. It was
inky black, in spite of the tearing white froth on the waves, and, to
top everything, the rain began to fall in sheets, so that you could not
see your hand before your face. This did not make much difference to the
ironwork below, but it troubled the foremast a good deal.

"Now it's all finished," he said dismally. "The conspiracy is too strong
for us. There is nothing left but to--"

"Hurraar! Brrrraaah! Brrrrrrp!" roared the Steam through the fog-horn,
till the decks quivered. "Don't be frightened, below. It's only me, just
throwing out a few words, in case any one happens to be rolling round
to-night."

"You don't mean to say there's any one except us on the sea in such
weather?" said the funnel, in a husky snuffle.

"Scores of 'em," said the Steam, clearing its throat. "Rrrrrraaa!
Brraaaaa! Prrrrp! It's a trifle windy up here; and, Great Boilers! how
it rains!"

"We're drowning," said the scuppers. They had been doing nothing else
all night, but this steady thrash of rain above them seemed to be the
end of the world.

"That's all right. We'll be easier in an hour or two. First the wind
and then the rain. Soon you may make sail again! Grrraaaaaah! Drrrraaaa!
Drrrp! I have a notion that the sea is going down already. If it does
you'll learn something about rolling. We've only pitched till now. By
the way, aren't you chaps in the hold a little easier than you were?"

There was just as much groaning and straining as ever, but it was not
so loud or squeaky in tone; and when the ship quivered she did not jar
stiffly, like a poker hit on the floor, but gave with a supple little
waggle, like a perfectly balanced golf-club.

"We have made a most amazing discovery," said the stringers, one after
another. "A discovery that entirely changes the situation. We have
found, for the first time in the history of ship-building, that the
inward pull of the deck-beams and the outward thrust of the frames locks
us, as it were, more closely in our places, and enables us to endure
a s