"Hullo!" he said. "How are you all? I'm on the sick-list to-day. I
sprained my wrist when I fell up the steps yesterday."

Fisher glanced at him for a moment over the top of his magazine and
resumed his reading in silence.

"Look here, my friend!" he said. "You were in the thick of this engine
business. I am sure of it."

"I was," said Charlie readily. "But for me you would all be at the
bottom of the sea by this time."

He threw himself into a chair with a broad grin at Major Granville's
contemptuous countenance and took up a book.

Major Granville looked intensely disgusted. It was scarcely credible
that a passenger could have penetrated to the engine-room and interfered
with the machinery there, yet he more than half believed that this
outrageous thing had actually occurred. He got up after a brief silence
and stalked stiffly from the saloon.

Charlie banged down his book with a yell of laughter.

"Didn't I tell you, Fisher?" he cried. "He's gone to have a good,
square, face-to-face talk with the captain. But he won't get anything
out of him. I've been there first."

He went up on deck and found a party of quoit-players. Molly Erle was
among them. Charlie stood and watched, yelling advice and
encouragement.