270 THE SEA. 



foot of the stairs he found a bundle of linen, and he was not long in helping himself, coming 

 back to the room in the wife's apron and a sheet. " The sight o' me made the lasses skairt 

 and skirl ; * for I was like a corp just poppit oot of the grave. " When he went for 

 his clothes they had disappeared, but at last he discovered that a young lady had care- 

 fully kept them for him behind a hedge, fearing that some one might steal them. 



" I come now," says Mr. Reade, " to the crowning feat of this philanthropic and 

 adventurous life, and I doubt my power to describe it. I halt before it like one that feels 

 weak and a mountain to climb, for such a feat, I believe, was never done in the water 

 by mortal man, nor never will again while earth shall last. 



" James Lambert worked in Somerville's Mill. Like most of the hands, he must cross 

 the water to get home. For that purpose a small ferry-boat was provided : it lay at a 

 little quay near the mill. One Andrew had charge of it ashore, and used to shove it off 

 with a lever, and receive it on its return. He often let more people go into it than 

 Lambert thought safe, and Lambert had remonstrated, and had even said, f Ye'll hae an 

 accident some day that ye'll rue but ance, and that will be a' your life/ Andrew, in reply 

 to him, told him to mind his own business. 



" Well, one evening James Lambert wanted to get away in the first boat-load. This 

 was somehow connected with his having bought a new hat : perhaps he wished to avoid 

 the crowd of workpeople here I am not very clear. However, he watched the great wheel, 

 and the moment it began to waver, previous to stopping, he ran for his hat and darted 

 down the stairs. But as he worked in an upper storey full a dozen got into the. boat before 

 him. He told Andrew to put off, but Andrew would not till the boat should be full; 

 and soon it was crammed. James Lambert then said it was a shame of him to let so 

 many on board. This angered the man, and when the boat was so crowded that her gun- 

 wale was not far above water, he shoved her violently off into the tideway, and said words 

 which, if he had not prayed God to forgive them in this world, will perhaps hang heavy 

 round his neck in the next. . . . ' ye beggars ! ' he cried. 



"This rough launching made the overladen boat wobble. The women got frightened, and 

 before the boat had gone twenty yards she upset in dark, icy water, ten feet deep. It 

 was night. 



" Before the boat coupit f athegither they a' flew to me that could, for they a' kenned 

 me. I' the water, them that hadna a hand o' me, had a hand o' them that had a hand o' me, 

 and they carried me doon like leed. * * * 



" Sirr, when yeve twa feet i' the grave, your mind warks hard. I didna struggle, for it 

 was nae mair use than to wrastle wr* a kirk. I just strauchtened myself oot like a corp, and 

 let them tak' me doon to the bottom of the Clyde, and there I stude upright and waited; for 

 I kenned the puir souls would droon afore me, and I saw just ae wee- wee chance to save them 

 yet. Ye shall understond, sirr, that when folk are drooning, they dinna settle doon till the 

 water fills their- lungs and drives the air oot. At first they waver up and doou at sairtain 

 intervals. Aweel, sirr, I waited for that, on the grund. I was the only ane grunded, you'll 

 obsairve. A slight upward movement commenced. I took advantage, and gieda violent spang 



* Run and squeal. t Upset. 



