V JIM'S TRIUMPH 319 



high bows. Buoyant as she was on the water, 

 she dipped her head, her decks were almost con- 

 tinuously a-wash, spray flew over her funnel, and 

 just outside Boulogne harbour a sea went clean 

 through her from stem to stern. 



Still at full speed, we raced Into harbour 

 The engines were reversed, then stopped. The 

 hawsers were taken ashore by waiting boats. We 

 were home. 



At 'Le Bon Pecheur' they ran towards us and 

 shook our hands — heaven knows why ! 'Fous 

 etes contents?' they cried. 



*We are more than content,' we answered. 



When we returned to the harbour after lunch 

 the Marie-Marthe was already gone out of port, 

 Into the easterly gale. That night, and every 

 night till the end of the herring season, fair and 

 foul, the Immense labour we had witnessed was to 

 be done all over again. On the quay Jim made 

 his great discovery. He stopped dead, like a man 

 suddenly Inspired. 'Lookse here!' he shouted 

 'Lookse here ! They gert steam-drifters, wl' 

 their three hunderd thousand to a haul, don't 

 bring In so many herrings after the rate, according 

 to their size an' length o' net, as us do In our 

 little twenty-foot craft, when us catches twenty 



