e dispassionate mind
might be swiftly shaken out of its calm, the well-sunk bolts of the
shores were wrapped round untidily with loose ends of ropes, giving a
studied effect of most dangerous insecurity. Next, Mr. Wardrop took up
a collection from the after-engine, which, as you will remember, had
not been affected in the general wreck. The cylinder escape-valve he
abolished with a flogging-hammer. It is difficult in far-off ports to
come by such valves, unless, like Mr. Wardrop, you keep duplicates
in store. At the same time men took off the nuts of two of the great
holding-down bolts that serve to keep the engines in place on their
solid bed. An engine violently arrested in mid-career may easily jerk
off the nut of a holding-down bolt, and this accident looked very
natural.

Passing along the tunnel, he removed several shaft coupling-bolts
and--nuts, scattering other and ancient pieces of iron underfoot.
Cylinder-bolts he cut off to the number of six from the after-engine
cylinder, so that it might match its neighbour, and stuffed the
bilge--and feed-pumps with cotton-waste. Then he made up a neat
bundle of the various odds and ends that he had gathered from the
engines--little things like nuts and valve-spindles, all carefully
tallowed--and retired with them under the floor of the engine-room,
where he sighed, being fat, as he passed from manhole to manhole of the
double bottom, and in a fairly dry submarine compartment hid them. Any
engineer, particularly in an unfriendly port, has a right to keep his
spare stores where he chooses; and the foot of one of the cylinder
shores blocked all entrance into the regular store-room, even if
that had not been already closed with steel wedges. In conclusion, he
disconnected the after-engine, laid piston and connecting-rod, carefully
tallowed, where it would be most inconvenient to the casual visitor,
took out three of the eight collars of the thrust-block, hid them where
only he could find them again, filled the boilers by hand, wedged the
sliding doors of the coal-bunkers, and rested from his labours. The
engine-room was a cemetery, and it did not need the contents of the
ash-lift through the skylight to make it any worse.

He invited the skipper to look at the completed work.

"Saw ye ever such a forsaken wreck as that?" said he, proudly. "It almost
frights me to go under those shores. Now, what d' you think they'll do
to us?"

"Wait till we see," said the skipper. "It'l