THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF
enormous. I believe the money-value of the cargo is over one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Think of that!"
"And every pound of it is dependent on my personal exertions." Here spoke a sea-valve that communicated directly with the water outside, and was seated not very far from the garboard-strake. "I rejoice to think that I am a Prince-Hyde Valve, with best Pará rubber facings. Five patents cover me—I mention this without pride—five separate and several patents, each one finer than the other. At present I am screwed fast. Should I open, you would immediately be swamped. This is incontrovertible!"
Patent things always use the longest words they can. It is a trick that they pick up from their inventors.
"That 's news," said a big centrifugal bilge-pump. "I had an idea that you were employed to clean decks and things with. At least, I 've used you for that more than once. I forget the precise number, in thousands, of gallons which I am guaranteed to throw per hour; but I assure you, my complaining friends, that there is not the least danger. I alone am capable of clearing any water that may find its way here. By my Biggest Deliveries, we pitched then!"
The sea was getting up in workmanlike style. It was a dead westerly gale, blown from under a ragged opening of green sky, narrowed on all sides by fat, grey clouds; and the wind bit like pincers as it fretted the spray into lacework on the flanks of the waves.
"I tell you what it is," the foremast telephoned down its wire-stays. "I 'm up here, and I can take a dis-
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