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“That night the cap’n took us three, as well as the provisions we’d got out, on board his hull, where the ‘commodations was consid’able better than they was on the half- sunk Mary Auguster. An’ afore we turned in he took me aft an’ had a talk with me as commandin’ off’cer of my vessel. ‘That wreck o’ yourn,’ says he, ‘has got a vallyble cargo in it, which isn’t sp’iled by bein’ under water. Now, if you could get that cargo into port it would put a lot of money in your pocket, fur the owners couldn’t git out of payin’ you fur takin’ charge of it an’ havin’ it brung in. Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll lie by you, an’ I’ve got carpenters aboard that’ll put your pumps in order, an’ I’ll set my men to work to pump out your vessel. An’ then, when she’s afloat all right, I’ll go to work ag’in at my vessel–which I didn’t s’pose there was any use o’ doin’, but whilst I was huntin’ round amongst our cargo to-day I found that some of the machinery we carried might be worked up so’s to take the place of what is broke in our engine. We’ve got a forge aboard, an’ I believe we can make these pieces of machinery fit, an’ git goin’ ag’in. Then I’ll tow you into Sydney, an’ we’ll divide the salvage money. I won’t git nothin’ fur savin’ my vessel, coz that’s my business, but you wasn’t cap’n o’ yourn, an’ took charge of her a-purpose to save her, which is another thing.’

“I wasn’t at all sure that I didn’t take charge of the Mary Auguster to save myself an’ not the vessel, but I didn’t mention that, an’ asked the cap’n how he expected to live all this time.

“‘Oh, we kin git at your stores easy enough,’ says he, when the water’s pumped out.”They’ll be mostly sp’iled,’ says I. ‘That don’t matter’ says he. ‘Men’ll eat anything when they can’t git nothin’ else.’An’ with that he left me to think it over.

“I must say, young man, an’ you kin b’lieve me if you know anything about sech things, that the idee of a pile of money was mighty temptin’ to a feller like me, who had a girl at home ready to marry him, and who would like nothin’ better’n to have a little house of his own, an’ a little vessel of his own, an’ give up the other side of the world altogether. But while I was goin’ over all this in my mind, an’ wonderin’ if the cap’n ever could git us into port, along comes Andy Boyle, an’ sits down beside me. ‘It drives me pretty nigh crazy,’ says he, ‘to think that to-morrer’s Christmas, an’ we’ve got to feed on that sloppy stuff we fished out of our stores, an’ not much of it, nuther, while there’s all that roast turkey an’ plum-puddin’ an’ mince-pie a- floatin’ out there just afore our eyes, an’ we can’t have none of it.”You hadn’t oughter think so much about eatin’, Andy,’ says I,’but if I was talkin’ about them things I wouldn’t leave out canned peaches. By George!On a hot Christmas like this is goin’ to be, I’d be the jolliest Jack on the ocean if I could git at that canned fruit.”Well, there’s a way,’ says Andy, ‘that we might git some of ’em. A part of the cargo of this ship is stuff far blastin’ rocks–ca’tridges, ‘lectric bat’ries, an’ that sort of thing; an’ there’s a man aboard who’s goin’ out to take charge of ’em. I’ve been talkin’ to this bat’ry man, an’ I’ve made up my mind it’ll be easy enough to lower a little ca’tridge down among our cargo an’ blow out a part of it.”What ‘u’d be the good of it,’ says I, ‘blowed into chips?”It might smash some,’ says he, ‘but others would be only loosened, an’ they’d float up to the top, where we could git ’em, specially them as was packed with pies, which must be pretty light.”Git out, Andy,’ says I, ‘with all that stuff!’An’ he got out.