"All right, Glover, don't do it again."
You can imagine that, as I stood there shivering, with my cap in my hand and not a stitch of clothes on, I wasn't very anxious to repeat the experiment.
"I didn't intend you to report to me like that," he added, smiling again. "Now, dry yourself," and he threw me one of his big bath-towels, "and when you are dry, climb into my bunk and get warm."
He went on deck, and it was glorious rubbing myself dry till my skin glowed, and Tommy came down with my pyjamas and a bucket of red-hot pea soup he had got from the men's galley.
It wasn't long before I was jolly snug under Mr. Parker's blankets, and then Tommy told me of a very plucky thing that had happened. They had told him about it when he went aboard the Laird with our wounded men.
It seems that when the Laird had overhauled the steamer, many of the crew jumped overboard and were drowned, nor would she stop her engines till the Laird had sent a shot across her bows and then another into her bridge.
This brought her to, and a couple of boats, with their crews armed, were sent across to take charge of her.
They found, as had been imagined, that the crew of the Hai Yen were aboard, but they made no resistance, and our people signalled over for some stokers and engine-room hands to work the engines.
Little Ogston, the assistant engineer—I told you before what a jolly little chap he is, and how clever—went over in charge of them, and by the time they got aboard something had evidently gone wrong with the steamer, for she seemed to be sinking.
They found that the Chinese captain had opened all his flooding valves and under-water openings, and that the engine-room and stokehold were half-full of water.