Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/99

 fit a'most to hold the big ship herself is holdin' on to it."

"Of course; how stupid I am!" said Robin, with a great sigh of relief; "I see it now, going round to the bows."

At first the rope was let run, to ease the strain while the ship swung round; then it was brought in over the pulley at the bow, the paddles moved, and the return towards Ireland was begun. The strain, although great, was far from the breaking point, but the speed was very slow—not more than a mile an hour being considered safe in the process of picking-up.

"Patience, Robin," observed Mr. Smith, as he passed on his way to the cabin, "is a virtue much needed in the laying of cables. We have now commenced a voyage at the rate of one mile an hour, which will not terminate till we get back to Owld Ireland, unless we find the fault."

Patience, however, was not destined to be so severely tried. All that day and all night the slow process went on. Meanwhile—as the cable was not absolutely unworkable, despite the fault—the chief engineer, Mr. Canning, sent a message to Mr. Glass in Ireland, asking him to send out the Hawk steamer, in order that he might return in her to search for the defect in the shore-end of the cable, for if that were found he purposed sacrificing