He went on deck, and it was glorious rubbing myself dry till my skin glowed, and Tommy came down with my pyjamas and a bucket of red-hot pea soup he had got from the men’s galley. It wasn’t long before I was jolly snug under Mr. Parker’s blankets, and then Tommy told me of a very plucky thing that had happened. They had told him about it when he went aboard the _Laird_ with our wounded men. It seems that when the _Laird_ had overhauled the steamer, many of the crew jumped overboard and were drowned, nor would she stop her engines till the _Laird_ had sent a shot across her bows and then another into her bridge. This brought her to, and a couple of boats, with their crews armed, were sent across to take charge of her. They found, as had been imagined, that the crew of the _Hai Yen_ were aboard, but they made no resistance, and our people signalled over for some stokers and engine-room hands to work the engines. Little Ogston, the assistant engineer—I told you before what a jolly little chap he is, and how clever—went over in charge of them, and by the time they got aboard something had evidently gone wrong with the steamer, for she seemed to be sinking. They found that the Chinese captain had opened all his flooding valves and under-water openings, and that the engine-room and stokehold were half-full of water. They could not close them, for the fittings were now below the water, but little Ogston made one of the Chinese stokers show him more or less where the opening and closing gear was, and what did he do but strip off his things and dive under the water, which had now risen almost as high as the cylinders, and was finding its way into the other compartments of the ship, fore and aft. The engine-room was quite dark, Tommy told me, and there was fifteen feet of water swishing about among the machinery as she lurched from side to side, and all the grease and filth from the bilges was floating about in it. Just fancy having the pluck to dive into that in the dark, knowing that it was only a question of a few minutes before the ship would sink! Of course it was useless, and Ogston was jolly well exhausted after he had made three attempts. They had to carry him on deck and do the artificial respiration dodge before he came round. He then wanted the diving apparatus sent across from the _Laird_, and he would have gone down again in the diver’s dress had not they all been recalled to the _Laird_. That was when she heard the pirate cruiser’s heavy guns, guessed we’d run up against something big, and was coming along after us. "So you see," Tommy finished up dolefully, "they had to leave the steamer, which was chock-full of stores, ammunition, and the _Hai Yen’s_ small guns, and now everything has gone to the bottom. But wasn’t it jolly plucky of Ogston? They’re awfully proud of him down in the gun-room, and are going to give him a mess dinner to-night and a sing-song afterwards. Don’t you wish we could go?"