I tell you I wanted to see him squirm for the honour of the craft.

The other two no-account chaps spotted their captain, and began to move slowly towards us.

They chatted together as they strolled, and I did not care any more than if they had not been visible to the naked eye.

They grinned at each other--might have been exchanging jokes, for all I know.

I saw that with one of them it was a case of a broken arm; and as to the long individual with grey moustaches he was the chief engineer, and in various ways a pretty notorious personality.