LOST ISLAND
more 'n a big-league baseball game. That man ain't got no heart. He's just made up of vinegar and guncotton."
It was true that Mr. Quick was getting the last ounce out of the men, and the pumping went on incessantly. There was always the bare chance that they were lightening the derelict a trifle, and the mate did not like to think of the tremendous strain those bulkheads were standing. Every hour, though, brought them miles nearer Charleston.
When night had fallen Barnes stood at the stern of the Pacific Queen, surveying the lurching light which alone showed that the stricken craft was still above water.
"This is where I quit cookin' pudding's for a bunch of sailors," he said to Dave. "It's more 'n I ever hoped for to come my way, is pickin' up two hundred feet or so of a steamer without even a canary on board. D' you know what I'm going
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