responsibility, I assure you, is enormous. I believe the money value
of the cargo is over one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Think of
that!"

"And every pound of it dependent on my personal exertions." Here spoke
a sea-valve that communicated directly with the water outside and was
seated not very far from the garboard strake. "I rejoice to think that
I am a Prince-Hyde valve, with best Para rubber facings. Five patents
cover me--I mention this without pride--five separate and several
patents, each one finer than the other. At present I am screwed
fast. Should I open, you would immediately be swamped. This is
incontrovertible!"

Patent things always use the longest words they can. It is a trick
they pick up from their inventors.

"That's news," said a big centrifugal bilge pump. "I had an idea that
you were employed to clean decks and things with. At least, I've used
you for that more than once. I forget the precise number in thousands
of gallons which I am guaranteed to pump in an hour; but I assure you,
my complaining friends, that there is not the least danger. _I_ alone
am capable of clearing any water that may find its way here. By my
biggest delivery, we pitched then!"

The sea was getting up in workmanlike style. It was a dead westerly
gale, blown from under a ragged opening of green sky, narrowed on all
sides by fat gray clouds; and the wind bit like pincers, as it fretted
the spray into lace-work on the heads of the waves.

"I tell you what it is," the foremast telephoned down its wire stays.