“The first to come aboard was McRimmon, wi’ Dandie. Did I tell you our orders were to take anything we found into Plymouth? The auld deil had just come down overnight, puttin’ two an’ two together from what Calder had told him when the liner landed the _Grotkau’s_ men. He had preceesely hit oor time. I’d hailed Bell for something to eat, an’ he sent it o’er in the same boat wi’ McRimmon, when the auld man came to me. He grinned an’ slapped his legs and worked his eyebrows the while I ate. “‘How do Holdock, Steiner & Chase feed their men?’ said he. “‘Ye can see,’ I said, knockin’ the top off another beer-bottle. ‘I did not sign to be starved, McRimmon.’ “‘Nor to swim, either,’ said he, for Bell had tauld him how I carried the line aboard. ‘Well, I’m thinkin’ you’ll be no loser. What freight could we ha’ put into the _Lammergeyer_ would equal salvage on four hunder thousand pounds—hull an’ cargo? Eh, McPhee? This cuts the liver out o’ Holdock, Steiner, Chase & Company, Limited. Eh, McPhee? An’ I’m sufferin’ from senile dementia now? Eh, McPhee? An’ I’m not daft, am I, till I begin to paint the _Lammergeyer?_ Eh, McPhee? Ye may weel lift your leg, Dandie! I ha’ the laugh o’ them all. Ye found watter in the engine-room?’ “‘To speak wi’oot prejudice,’ I said, ‘there was some watter.’ “‘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’ stayin’ 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 bilgecock?’ “‘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 _Grotkau’s_ people?’ “‘Just there or thereabouts,’ I said. “‘An’ which o’ you twa thought to cover your lights?’ said he, winkin’. “‘Dandle,’ I said to the dog, ‘we must both strive against curiosity. It’s an unremunerative business. What’s our chance o’ salvage, Dandie?’