THE CABLE HOOKED Ixxxiii 



off through the sand which has accumulated over it. By getting 

 the cable tight on to the boat, and letting the swell pitch her 

 about till it got slack, and then tightening again with blocks and 

 pulleys, we managed to get out from the beach towards the ship 

 at the rate of about twenty yards an hour. When they had got 

 about 100 yards from shore, we ran round in the Elba to 

 try and help them, letting go the anchor in the shallowest 

 possible water, this was about sunset. Suddenly someone 

 calls out he sees the cable at the bottom : there it was sure 

 enough, apparently wriggling about as the waves rippled. Great 

 excitement ; still greater when we find our own anchor is foul 

 of it and has been the means of bringing it to light. We let 

 go a grapnel, get the cable clear of the anchor on to the grapnel 

 the captain in an agony lest we should drift ashore meanwhile 

 hand the grappling line into the big boat, steam out far 

 enough, and anchor again. A little more work and one end of 

 the cable is up over the bows round my drum. I go to my 

 engine and we start hauling in. All goes pretty well, but it is 

 quite dark. Lamps are got at last, and men arranged. We go 

 on for a quarter of a mile or so from shore and then stop at 

 about half-past nine with orders to be up at three. Grand 

 work at last ! A number of the Saturday Review here ; it reads 

 so hot and feverish, so tomblike and unhealthy, 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. 



4 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 necessary 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 



