"BREAD UPON THE WATERS"
"'They thought she was sinkin' after the propeller went. She filled wi' extraordinary rapeedity. Calder said it grieved him an' Bannister to abandon her.'
"I thought o' the dinner at Radley's, an' what like o' food I 'd eaten for eight days.
"'It would grieve them sore,' I said.
"'But the crew would not hear o' stay in' and workin' her back under canvas. They 're gaun up an' down sayin' they 'd ha' starved first.'
"'They 'd ha' starved if they 'd stayed,' said I.
"'I tak' it, fra Calder's account, there was a mutiny a'most.’
"'Ye know more than I, McRimmon,' I said. ’Speakin' wi'oot prejudice, for we 're all in the same boat, who opened the bilge-cock?'
"'Oh, that 's it—is it?' said the auld man, an' I could see he was surprised. 'A bilge-cock, ye say?'
"'I believe it was a bilge-cock. They were all shut when I came aboard, but some one had flooded the engine-room eight feet over all, and shut it off with the worm-an'-wheel gear from the second gratin' afterwards.'
"'Losh!' said McRimmon. 'The ineequity o' man 's beyond belief. But it 's awfu' discreditable to Holdock, Steiner & Chase, if that came oot in court.'
"’It 's just my own curiosity,' I said.
"'Aweel, Dandie 's afflicted wi' the same disease. Dandie, strive against curiosity, for it brings a little dog into traps an' suchlike. Whaur was the Kite when yon painted liner took off the Groikau's people?'
[330]
