"I can hear something ticking, sir," reported a seaman leaning over the low freeboard.
The officer hastened for'ard and listened.
"Nonsense!" he declared. "It's the bull-frogs on shore that you can hear, or else the lap of the water. They're only waterlogged barricoes. Push them clear with a boat-hook."
Three or four seamen tried to free the bows from the obstruction but without success. The barrels afforded little or no grip, and pinned down by the rush of tide refused to be thrown clear.
"Away sea-boat!" ordered the officer of the watch.
Quickly the boat was manned, and rowing well ahead of the Crustacean, was allowed to drop stern foremost until the coxswain was able to bend a rope to one of the barrels.
"Can you hear anything, Sanders?" asked the officer of the watch.
"No, sir," replied the petty officer.
As a matter of fact he was suffering from gun deafness, but from praiseworthy yet indiscreet motives he had kept the knowledge of his temporary physical defect to himself.
Ordering the men to give way, the coxswain jerked the obstruction clear of the Crustacean's hawse.