She was now bowling along with every stitch set before a five-knot breeze from the east; the tilt of her sails was such that she practically presented only the outline of her spars when first sighted from the steamer; and her side lights probably had tallow candles in them.
"Bedad, it's aisier in moind we'd be if you were tied to it," shouted the voice, and Hozier felt, like many another Saxon, that an Irishman's last word is often the best one.
The engines resumed their cadence, and the _Andromeda_ crept round again to South 15 West.

She was back on her proper line when a heavy step sounded on the iron rungs of the bridge ladder.
"Wot's up ?" demanded Coke, who was fully dressed, though Hozier thought he had retired two hours earlier.

"Oh, the beer is frothin' up to their eyes, is it ?" went on the skipper, after listening to a brief summary of events.

"I thought, mebbe, the wheel had jammed.

But those lazy swabs want talkin' to.