THE BIG CABLE Ixxxix 



flat roller would remedy the whole misfortune ; but a flat roller 

 at Cape Spartivento, hard, easily unshipped, running freely ! 

 There was a grooved pulley used for the paying-out machinery 

 with a spindle wheel, which might suit me. I filled him up 

 with tarry spunyarn, nailed sheet copper round him, bent some 

 parts in the fire ; and we are paying-in without more trouble 

 now. You would think some one would praise me ; no, no 

 more praise than blame before ; perhaps now they think better 

 of me, though. 



' 10 P.M. We have gone on very comfortably for nearly six 

 miles. An hour and a half was spent washing down ; for along 

 with many coloured polypi, from corals, shells and insects, the 

 big cable brings up much mud and rust, and makes a fishy 

 smell by no means pleasant : the bottom seems to teem with 

 life. But now we are startled by a most unpleasant, grinding 

 noise ; which appeared at first to come from the large low pulley, 

 but when the engines stopped, the noise continued ; and we 

 now imagine it is something slipping down the cable, and the 

 pulley but acts as sounding-board to the big fiddle. Whether 

 it is only an anchor or one of the two other cables, we know 

 not. We hope it is not the cable just laid down. 



1 June 19. 



' 10 A.M. All our alarm groundless, it would appear : the 

 odd noise ceased after a time, and there was no mark suffi- 

 ciently strong on the large cable to warrant the suspicion that we 

 had cut another line through. I stopped up on the look-out 

 till three in the morning, which made 23 hours between sleep 

 and sleep. One goes dozing about, though, most of the day, 

 for it is only when something goes wrong that one has to look 

 alive. Hour after hour, I stand on the forecastle-head, picking 

 off little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck 

 reading back n ambers of the Times till something hitches, and 

 then all is hurly-burly once more. There are awnings all along 

 the ship, and a most ancient, fish-like smell beneath. 



< 1 o'Clock. Suddenly a great strain in only 95 fathoms 

 of water belts surging and general dismay ; grapnels being 

 thrown out in the hope of finding what holds the cable. 



