"Ay, ay, sir," responded the Patrol-leader.
"Way 'nough," ordered the Scoutmaster, as the cockleshell dinghy approached the tramp. He was now convinced that the abandoned craft was making little if any water. Her freeboard aft was approximately the same as when he first took stock of her.
The sea was so calm that the dinghy could lie alongside without danger or difficulty. Grasping his opportunity Mr. Grant swung himself on board.
"Righto!" he shouted reassuringly. "Push off and wait until I hail."
The Getalong was rolling slightly and sluggishly, the dull swish of the water in her hold being plainly audible as he made his way to the engine-room hatchway.
The air of the compartment was heavy with smoke and steam. For a moment the Scoutmaster hesitated. Above the sullen swirl of the imprisoned water he distinctly heard a steady trickle.
"What I expected—only more so," thought Mr. Grant, and without further ado he switched on his electric torch and descended the steel ladder.
That the Getalong was a very old type of vessel was apparent by the fact that she was without water-tight bulkheads. There was a bulkhead at the after end of the engine-room and at the for'ard end of the stokehold, but both had sliding doors communicating with the holds.
Water had poured into the engine-room—it was still coming in—and had run aft owing to the fact that the cargo in the after hold was much heavier than that stowed for'ard. That accounted for the vessel being down by the stern.
It did not take Mr. Grant long to discover the leak. A large valve in the "wings" through which water was normally admitted into the circulating pumps was wide open, while the joint of the pipe had been deliberately "broken" by unscrewing the six gun-metal bolts uniting the flanges.