"BREAD UPON THE WATERS"
came, every cabin lighted, an' her boats swung awa'. It was grandly done, an' in the inside of an hour. She stopped like Mrs. Holdock's machine; down went the gangway, down went the boats, an' in ten minutes we heard the passengers cheerin', an' awa' she fled.
"'They 'll tell o' this all the days they live,' said Bell. ’A rescue at sea by night, as pretty as a play. Young Bannister an' Calder will be drinkin' in the saloon, an' six months hence the Board o' Trade 'll gie the skipper a pair o' binoculars. It 's vara philanthropic all round. '
"We 'll lay by till day—ye may think we waited for it wi' sore eyes—an' there sat the Grotkau, her nose a bit cocked, just leerin' at us. She looked paifectly ridiculous.
"'She 'll be fillin' aft,' says Bell; 'for why is she down by the stern? The tail-shaft 's punched a hole in her, an'—we 've no boats. There 's three hunder thousand pound sterlin', at a conservative estimate, droonin' before our eyes. What 's to do? 'An' his bearin's got hot again in a minute: he was an incontinent man.
"'Run her as near as ye daur,' I said. 'Gie me a jacket an' a life-line, an' I 'll swum for it.' There was a bit lump of a sea, an' it was cold in the wind—vara cold; but they 'd gone overside like passengers, young Bannister an' Calder an' a', leaving the gangway down on the lee-side. It would ha' been a flyin' in the face o' manifest Providence to overlook the invitation. We were within fifty yards o' her while Kinloch was garmin' me all over wi' oil behind the galley; an' as we ran past I went outboard for the salvage o' three hunder
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