"'When d' ye ship a new tail–shaft?' I said to Bannister.
"He knew what I meant. 'Oh, yon's a superfeecial flaw,' says he, not lookin' at me.
"'Superfeecial Gehenna!' I said. 'Ye'll not take her oot wi' a solution o' continuity that like.'
"'They'll putty it up this evening,' he said. 'I'm a married man, an'—ye used to know the Board.'
"I e'en said what was gied me in that hour. Ye know how a drydock echoes. I saw young Steiner standin' listenin' above me, an', man, he used language provocative of a breach o' the peace. I was a spy and a disgraced employ, an' a corrupter o' young Bannister's morals, an' he'd prosecute me for libel. He went away when I ran up the steps—I'd ha' thrown him into the dock if I'd caught him—an' there I met McRimmon, wi' Dandie pullin' on the chain, guidin' the auld man among the railway lines.
"'McPhee,' said he, 'ye're no paid to fight Holdock, Steiner, Chase & Company, Limited, when ye meet. What's wrong between you?'
"'No more than a tail–shaft rotten as a kail–stump. For ony sakes go an' look, McRimmon. It's a comedietta.'
"'I'm feared o' yon conversational Hebrew,' said he. 'Whaur's the flaw, an' what like?'
"'A seven–inch crack just behind the boss. There's no power on earth will fend it just jarrin' off.'
"'When?'
"'That's beyon' my knowledge,' I said.
"'So it is; so it is,' said McRimmon. 'We've all oor leemitations. Ye're certain it was a crack?'
"'Man, it's a crevasse,' I said, for there were no words to describe the magnitude of it. 'An' young Bannister's sayin' it's no more than a superfeecial flaw!'
"'Weell, I tak' it oor business is to mind oor business. If ye've ony friends aboard her, McPhee, why not bid them to a bit dinner at Radley's?'
"'I was thinkin' o' tea in the cuddy,' I said. 'Engineers o' tramp freighters cannot afford hotel prices.'
"'Na! na!' says the auld man, whimperin'. 'Not the cuddy. They'll laugh at my Kite, for she's no plastered with paint like the Hoor. Bid them to Radley's, McPhee, an' send me the bill. Thank Dandie, here, man. I'm no used to thanks.' Then he turned him round. (I was just thinkin' the vara same thing.) 'Mister McPhee,' said he, 'this is not senile dementia.'
"'Preserve 's!' I said, clean jumped oot o' mysel'. 'I was but thinkin' you're fey, McRimmon.'
"Dod, the auld deevil laughed till he nigh sat down on Dandie. 'Send me the bill,' says he. 'I'm long past champagne, but tell me how it tastes the morn.'
"Bell and I bid young Bannister and Calder to dinner at Radley's. They'll have no laughin' an' singin' there, but we took a private room—like yacht–owners fra' Cowes."
McPhee grinned all over, and lay back to think.
"And then?" said I.
"We were no drunk in ony preceese sense o' the word, but Radley's showed me the dead men. There were six magnums o' dry champagne an' maybe a bottle o' whisky."
"Do you mean to tell me that you four got away with a magnum and a half a piece, besides whisky?" I demanded.
McPhee looked down upon me from between his shoulders with toleration.
"Man, we were not settin' down to drink," he said. "They no more than made us wutty. To be sure, young Bannister laid his head on the table an' greeted like a bairn, an' Calder was all for callin' on Steiner at two in the morn an' painting him galley–green; but they'd been drinkin' the afternoon. Lord, how they twa cursed the Board, an' the Grotkau, an' the tail–shaft, an' the engines, an' a'! They didna talk o' superfeecial flaws that night. I mind young Bannister an' Calder shakin' hands on a bond to be revenged on the Board at ony reasonable cost this side o' losing their certificates. Now mark ye how false economy ruins business. The Board fed them like swine (I have good reason to know it), an' I've obsairved wi' my ain people that if ye touch his stomach ye wauken the deil in a Scot. Men will tak' a dredger across the Atlantic if they 're well fed, an' fetch her somewhere on the broadside o' the Americas; but bad food's bad service the warld over.
"The bill went to McRimmon, an' he said no more to me till the week–end, when I was at him for more paint, for we'd heard the Kite was chartered Liverpool–side. 'Bide whaur ye're put,' said the Blind Deevil. 'Man, do ye wash in champagne? The Kite's no leavin' here till I gie the order, an'—how am I to waste paint onher, wi' the Lammergeyer docked for who knows how long an' a'?'
"She was our big freighter—McIntyre was engineer—an' I knew she'd come from overhaul not three months. That morn I met McRimmon's head–clerk—ye'll not know him—fair bitin' his nails off wi' mortification.
"'The auld man's gone gyte,' says he. 'He's withdrawn the Lammergeyer.'
"'Maybe he has reasons,' says I.
"'Reasons! He's daft!'
"'He'll no be daft till he begins to paint,' I said.
"'That's just what he's done—and South American freights higher than we'll live to see them again. He's laid her up to paint her—to paint her—to paint her!' says the little clerk, dancin' like a hen on a hot plate. 'Five thousand ton o' potential freight rottin' in drydock, man; an' he dolin' the paint out in quarter–pound tins, for it cuts him to the heart, mad though he is. An' the Grotkau—the Grotkau of all conceivable bottoms—soaking up every pound that should be ours at Liverpool!'
"I was staggered wi' this folly—considerin' the dinner at Radley's in connection wi' the same.
"Ye may well stare, McPhee,' says the head–clerk. 'There's engines, an' rollin' stock, an' iron bridgesd' ye know what freights are noo? an' pianos, an' millinery, an' fancy Brazil cargo o' every species pourin' into the Grotkau—the Grotkau o' the Jerusalem firm—and the Lammergeyer's bein' painted!'
"Losh, I thought he'd drop dead wi' the fits.
"I could say no more than 'Obey orders, if ye break owners,' but on the Kite we believed McRimmon was mad; an' McIntyre of the Lammergeyer was for lockin' him up by some patent legal process he'd found in a book o' maritime law. An' a' that week South American freights rose an' rose. It was sinfu'!
"Syne Bell got orders to tak' the Kite round to Liverpool in water–ballast, and McRimmon came to bid's good–bye, yammerin' an' whinin' o'er the acres o' paint he'd lavished on the Lammergeyer.
"'I look to you to retrieve it,' says he. 'I look to you to reimburse me! 'Fore God, why are ye not cast off? Are ye dawdlin' in dock for a purpose?'
"'What odds, McRimmon?' says Bell. 'We'll be a day behind the fair at Liverpool. The Grotkau's got all the freight that might ha' been ours an' the Lammergeyer's.' McRimmon laughed an' chuckled—the pairfect eemage o' senile dementia. Ye ken his eyebrows wark up an' down like a gorilla's.
"'Ye're under sealed orders,' said he, tee–heein' an' scratchin' himself. 'Yon's they'—to be opened seriatim.
"Says Bell, shufflin' the envelopes when the auld man had gone ashore: 'We're to creep round a' the south coast, standin' in for orders his weather, too. There's no question o' his lunacy now.'
"Well, we buttocked the auld Kite along—vara bad weather we made—standin' in all alongside for telegraphic orders, which are the curse o' skippers. Syne we made over to Holyhead, an' Bell opened the last envelope for the last instructions. I was wi' him in the cuddy, an' he threw it over to me, cryin': 'Did ye ever know the like, Mac?'