There are
those canvas boats. They won't work; you can't get them together. You
couldn't launch one in an hour. And as for the use of the others, the
lascars would melt like snow in any real danger. There's about one decent
boat's crew on the ship, that's all. There! I've unburdened myself; I
feel better."
Presently he added, with a shake of the head: "See here: now-a-days we
trust too much to machinery and chance, and not enough to skill of hand
and brain stuff. I'd like to show you some of the crews I've had in the
Pacific and the China Sea--but I'm at it again! I'll now come, Marmion,
to the real reason why I brought you here. . . . Number 116 Intermediate
is under the weather; I found him fainting in the passage. I helped him
into his cabin. He said he'd been to you to get medicine, and you'd given
him some. Now, the strange part of the business is, I know him. He didn't
remember me, however--perhaps because he didn't get a good look at me.
Coincidence is a strange thing. I can point to a dozen in my short life,
every one as remarkable, if not as startling, as this. Here, I'll spin
you a yarn:
"It happened four years ago.
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