Page:The Days Work (1899).djvu/338

 trust themselves—one of 'em—in this watter—except Kinloch, an' I ’ll no spare him.’ "'The more salvage to me, then,' I said. 'I 'll make shift solo." "Says one dock-rat, at this: 'D' ye think she 's safe?'

"'I 'll guarantee ye nothing,' I said, 'except maybe a hammerin' for keepin' me this long.'

"Then he sings out: 'There 's no more than one life-belt, an' they canna find it, or I 'd come.'

"'Throw him over, the Jezebel,' I said, for I was oot o' patience; an' they took haud o' that volunteer before he knew what was in store, and hove him over, in the bight of my life-line. So I e'en hauled him upon the sag of it, hand over fist—a vara welcome recruit when I 'd tilted the salt watter oot of him: for, by the way, he could na swim.

"Syne they bent a twa-inch rope to the life-line, an' a hawser to that, an' I led the rope o'er the drum of a hand-winch forward, an' we sweated the hawser inboard an' made it fast to the Grotkau’s bitts.

"Bell brought the Kite so close I feared she 'd roll in an' do the Grotkau's plates a mischief. He hove anither life-line to me, an' went astern, an' we had all the weary winch work to do again wi' a second hawser. For all that, Bell was right: we 'd a long tow before us, an' though Providence had helped us that far, there was no sense in leavin' too much to its keepin'. When the second hawser was fast, I was wet wi' sweat, an' I cried Bell to tak' up his slack an' go home. The other man was by way o' helpin' the work wi' askin' for drinks, but I e'en told him he must hand reef an' steer, {{hws|begin|beginnin’ {{c|[326] }}