I know now I should have been a trifle more diplomatic, and I might well have regretted it; for the fellow had me nicely by the throat in the time you could count three.
But aid came speedily.
With a neatness and dispatch with which I would never have credited his build, the owner shot out a white-knuckled fist, and caught the engineer prettily beneath the cheek.
There’s a spot that effects the result nicely.
Grip relaxed, he toppled over the rail. The next second he bobbed to the surface, gurgling stertorously.
I had regained my breath from the strangle by this time.
“Here, quick!” said I, springing for the stopcock and turning it on full. “I’ll run her for you.”
I had caught the glitter of a constable’s star in the small crowd that had collected on the dock from nowhere. I realized that explanation would delay.
And little Skipper Stevens proved a man of quick action, too; for this time the bell jangled with a result.
I threw her over, and she caught on the first spark.