"Why don't you ram something in it?" she asked.
Simple? Sure it was simple. No one had tried to do such a thing, but there she was asking why.
"The pipe'll break away—you can't shove anything down it," said Boldwin.
"No? But why don't you shove something from the outside?" said Miss Docking.
"Go to your room," snarled the old man.
"She's right—we'll stop it in a jiffy—from the outside," I yelled.
The skipper thought I was crazy. He looked at me.
"How'll you get anything over the outside in this seaway, you bonehead?" he asked.
"Get me the hand lead," I yelled to the bos'n, "and a stick of light wood—big piece, big enough to float a man."
The bos'n ran for the stuff. That was one good point in that bos'n. He'd do what he was told even when he hadn't the slightest idea what he was doing. He came back in a few minutes with a long piece of white pine and the hand lead. I looked them over for a moment to judge the weight and floating power of the tools. Then I quickly hitched the lead to the piece of pine and left the bight of the line so that as soon as I jerked it hard the lead would free itself and go hell bent for Davy Jones, leaving the Pine line fast to the lead line to float up and away.