THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF
strap, and the plates opened like a furnace door, and I had to climb into the nearest fog-bank, while the boat went down."
"Now that 's peculiarly disgraceful," said the rivet. "Fatter than me, was he, and in a steamer not half our tonnage? Reedy little peg! I blush for the family, sir." He settled himself more firmly than ever in his place, and the Steam chuckled.
"You see," he went on, quite gravely, "a rivet, and especially a rivet in your position, is really the one indispensable part of the ship."
The Steam did not say that he had whispered the very same thing to every single piece of iron aboard. There is no sense in telling too much.
And all that while the little Dimbula pitched and chopped, and swung and slewed, and lay down as though she were going to die, and got up as though she had been stung, and threw her nose round and round in circles half a dozen times as she dipped, for the gale was at its worst. It was inky black, in spite of the tearing white froth on the waves, and, to top everything, the ram began to fall in sheets, so that you could not see your hand before your face. This did not make much difference to the ironwork below, but it troubled the foremast a good deal.
"Now it ’s all finished," he said dismally. "The conspiracy is too strong for us. There is nothing left but to—"
"Hurraar! Brrrraaah! Brrrrrrp!" roared the Steam through the fog-horn, till the decks quivered. "Don't be frightened, below. It s only me, just throwing out
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