"He didn't see Miss Vivian, I hope?" he asked anxiously.
"Young Bill? No. Young Bill was kept in the background, so to speak. Hello! Here come the others. Hadn't any idea it was knocking-off time."
Branscombe grinned sympathetically when he saw his chum.
"You low-down bruiser!" he exclaimed. "Did they teach you that in the navy?"
"Partly," admitted Alwyn. "I'm afraid I departed somewhat from the recognized canons of the ring towards the end. Had to, or I mightn't have been here now. Well, any news?"
Phil divested himself of his soiled patrol coat, and revealed the fact that he had encompassed his waist with an uncut length of about ten fathoms of inch-and-a-half manila rope.
"A slight contribution to the general fund, eh, what, Withers?"
The Second Engineer produced his share of the day's plunder; one hack-saw blade and four pieces of files each about three inches in length.
"I had Satan's own job to get them," he explained. "The hack-saw blade I managed by a sort of three-card trick, and old Li Whong never twigged it. I spend most of the time in the workshop breaking off the tips of eighteen-inch files and rounding off the jagged edges. Li issued twenty-four out to the men, and twenty-four were returned; but he didn't notice that, instead of eight eighteen-inch and ten fourteen-inch, he received four eighteens and fourteen fourteens. How's that, umpire?"
"Excellent," conceded Burgoyne.