THE SHIP THAT FOUND HERSELF
ends! Grip, now! Bite tight! Let the water get away from under—and there she goes!"
The wave raced off into the darkness, shouting, "Not bad, that, if it 's your first run!" and the drenched and ducked ship throbbed to the beat of the engines inside her. All three cylinders were white with the salt spray that had come down through the engine-room hatch; there was white fur on the canvas-bound steam-pipes, and even the bright-work deep below was speckled and soiled; but the cylinders had learned to make the most of steam that was half water, and were pounding along cheerfully.
"How 's the noblest outcome of human ingenuity hitting it?" said the Steam, as he whirled through the engine-room.
"Nothing for nothing in this world of woe," the cylinders answered, as though they had been working for centuries, "and precious little for seventy-five pounds head. We 've made two knots this last hour and a quarter! Rather humiliating for eight hundred horse-power, is n't it?"
"Well, it 's better than drifting astern, at any rate. You seem rather less—how shall I put it?—stiff in the back than you were."
"If you 'd been hammered as we ’ve been this night, you would n't be stiff—iff—iff, either. Theoreti—retti—retti—cally, of course, rigidity is the thing. Purrr—purr—practically, there has to be a little give and take. We found that out by working on our sides for five minutes at a stretch—chch—chh. How 's the weather?"
"Sea ’s going down fast," said the Steam.
[101]
