"All right, then. Come on, Ben, let's get out of this. I wouldn't take his word for one of his firemen's rations of soup and lumpy stew, and if he gave us the company's I. O. U., we wouldn't get it for a month, and they'd red-tape it to death," he ended, starting for the ropes again.
"Wait a minute and I'll see," coaxed the captain, starting up to his quarters nearby.
"The old liar; he's got it, all right. Say, Ben, do you really think she will float—it seems to me the bow is farther down than it was?" he queried me with something of a chuckle.
"Yes, I think it will. The sea is a little higher than it was, and that makes the ship seem lower, but if it gets worse there may be some danger."
"Do you think we can afford to take the chance?"
"I think we can get away in the lifeboat if the ship gets lower. I'll watch closely, but if we take the money we are bound to take the risk."
"Oh, if we take the money we will deliver the goods, but hang the money if the risk is too big."
"It's a fair bet. If we back in it will take the strain off the bulkhead, but if it does not hold, we'll have time to get away."
"Watch this old jockey; he'll come rushing back with part of the money, saying that's all he could find." Hiram, Jr., had hardly finished when the captain came rushing down and gave us in bills the exact amount, cheerfully, and apparently disposed to treat us as equals.
"Now, boys, we're only about twenty miles off Hampton Roads, and if you can keep a couple of boilers hot, we'll be there in three hours, and your job's done. The tide is right and we might be able to get clear in."