THE CABLE HOOKED 115 



healthy, in the midst of dear Nature's hills and sea, 

 with good wholesome work to do. Pray that all 

 go well to-morrow. 



' June 10. 



' Thank heaven for a most fortunate day. At 

 three o'clock this morning in a damp, chill mist 

 all hands were roused to work. With a small delay, 

 for one or two improvements I had seen to be neces- 

 sary last night, the engine started, and since that 

 time I do not think there has been half an hour's 

 stoppage. A rope to splice, a block to change, a 

 wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to disengage 

 from the cable which brought it up, these have 

 been our only obstructions. Sixty, seventy, eighty, 

 a hundred, a hundred and twenty revolutions at 

 last, my little engine tears away. The even black 

 rope comes straight out of the blue heaving water ; 

 passes slowly round an open-hearted, good-tempered 

 looking pulley, five feet diameter ; aft past a vicious 

 nipper, to bring all up should anything go wrong ; 

 through a gentle guide ; on to a huge bluff drum, 

 who wraps him round his body and says " Come 

 you must," as plain as drum can speak : the 

 chattering pauls say " I 've got him, I 've got him, 

 he can't get back " : whilst black cable, much 

 slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by 

 a slim V-pulley and passed down into the huge 

 hold, where half a dozen men put him comfortably 

 to bed after his exertion in rising from his long bath. 



