The oarsmen had instructions to drop slowly down to the Pool, as the wide reach below the Tower is called. These two men had not been previously informed of the precise object of the expedition, but now that they were safely afloat Hazell judged it expedient to give them some notion of it. ‘We expect to come across a rather suspicious steam launch,’ he said. ‘My friend here is very anxious to get a sight of her, and until he has seen her nothing definite can be done.’ ‘What sort of a craft is she, sir?’ asked the stroke oar, a fat-faced man who seemed absolutely incapable of any serious exertion. ‘I don’t know,’ Racksole replied; ‘but as near as I can judge, she’s about sixty feet in length, and painted black. I fancy I shall recognize her when I see her.’ ‘Not much to go by, that,’ exclaimed the other man curtly. But he said no more. He, as well as his mate, had received from Theodore Racksole one English sovereign as a kind of preliminary fee, and an English sovereign will do a lot towards silencing the natural sarcastic tendencies and free speech of a Thames waterman. ‘There’s one thing I noticed,’ said Racksole suddenly, ‘and I forgot to tell you of it, Mr Hazell. Her screw seemed to move with a rather irregular, lame sort of beat.’ Both watermen burst into a laugh. ‘Oh,’ said the fat rower, ‘I know what you’re after, sir--it’s Jack Everett’s launch, commonly called “Squirm”. She’s got a four-bladed propeller, and one blade is broken off short.’ ‘Ay, that’s it, sure enough,’ agreed the man in the bows. ‘And if it’s her you want, I seed her lying up against Cherry Gardens Pier this very morning.’ ‘Let us go to Cherry Gardens Pier by all means, as soon as possible,’