"It came on to blow when we fetched soundin's, an' that kept me standin' by the hawsers, lashed to the capstan, breathin' twixt green seas. I near died o' cauld an' hunger, for the Grotkau towed like a barge, an' Bell howkit her along through or over. It was vara thick up–Channel, too. We were standin' in to make some sort o' light, an' we near walked over twa three fishin'–boats, an' they cried us we were overclose to Falmouth. Then we were near cut down by a drunken foreign fruiter that was blunderin' between us an' the shore, and it got thicker an' thicker that night, an' I could feel by the tow Bell did not know whaur he was. Losh, we knew in the morn, for the wind blew the fog oot like a candle, an' the sun came clear; and as surely as McRimmon gied me my cheque, the shadow o' the Eddystone lay across our tow–rope! We were that near—ay, we were that near! Bell fetched the Kite round with the jerk that came close to tearin' the bitts out o' the Grotkau, an' I mind I thanked my Maker in young Bannister's cabin when we were inside Plymouth breakwater.
"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 swum, 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?'
"He laughed till he choked. 'Tak' what I gie you, McPhee, an' be content,' he said. 'Lord, how a man wastes time when he gets old. Get aboard the Kite, mon, as soon as ye can. I've clean forgot there's a Baltic charter yammerin' for you at London. That'll be your last voyage, I'm thinkin', excep' by way o' pleasure.'
"Steiner's men were comin' aboard to take charge an' tow her round, an' I passed young Steiner in a boat as I went to the Kite. He looked down his nose; but McRimmon pipes up: 'Here's the man ye owe the Grotkau to—at a price, Steiner—at a price! Let me introduce Mr. McPhee to you. Maybe ye've met before; but ye've vara little luck in keepin' your men—ashore or afloat!'
"Young Steiner looked angry enough to eat him as he chuckled an' whustled in his dry old throat.
"'Ye've not got your award yet,' Steiner says.
"'Na, na,' says the auld man, in a screech ye could hear to the Hoe, 'but I've twa million sterlin', an' no bairns, ye Judeeas Apella, if ye mean to fight; an' I'll match ye p'und for p'und till the last p'und's oot. Ye ken me, Steiner! I'm McRimmon o' McNaughten & McRimmon!'
"'Dod,' he said betwix' his teeth, sittin' back in the boat, 'I've waited fourteen year to break that Jewfirm, an' God be thankit I'll do it now.'
"The Kite was in the Baltic while the auld man was warkin' his warks, but I know the assessors valued the Grotkau, all told, at over three hunder and sixty thousand—her manifest was a treat o' richness—an' McRimmon got a third for salvin' an abandoned ship. Ye see, there's vast deeference between towin' a ship wi' men on her an' pickin' up a derelict—a vast deeference—in pounds sterlin'. Moreover, twa three o' the Grotkau's crew were burnin' to testify about food, an' there was a note o' Calder to the Board, in regard to the tail–shaft, that would ha' been vara damagin' if it had come into court. They knew better than to fight.
"Syne the Kite came back, an' McRimmon paid off me an' Bell personally, an' the rest of the crew pro rata, I believe it's ca'ed. My share—oor share, I should say—was just twenty–five thousand pound sterlin'."
At this point Janet jumped up and kissed him.
"Five–and–twenty thousand pound sterlin'. Noo, I'm fra the North, and I'm not the like to fling money awa' rashly, but I'd gie six months' pay—one hunder an' twenty pounds—to know who flooded the engine–room of the Grotkau. I'm fairly well acquaint wi' McRimmon's eediosyncrasies, and he'd no hand in it. It was not Calder, for I've asked him, an' he wanted to fight me. It would be in the highest degree unprofessional o' Calder—not fightin', but openin' bilge–cocks—but for a while I thought it was him. Ay, I judged it might be him—under temptation."
"What's your theory?" I demanded.
"Weel, I'm inclined to think it was one o' those singular providences that remind us we're in the hands o' Higher Powers.".
"It couldn't open and shut itself?"
"I did not mean that; but some half–starvin' oiler or, maybe, trimmer must ha' opened it awhile to mak' sure o' leavin' the Grotkau. It's a demoralisin' thing to see an engine–room flood up after any accident to the gear—demoralisin' and deceptive both. Aweel, the man got what he wanted, for they went aboard the liner cryin' that the Grotkau was sinkin'. But it's curious to think o' the consequences. In a' human probability, he's bein' damned in heaps at the present moment aboard another tramp freighter; an' here am I, wi' five–an'–twenty thousand pound invested, resolute to go to sea no more—providential's the preceese word—except as a passenger, ye'll understand, Janet."