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But you could get round his engines without riskin' your life, an', for all his blindness, I've seen him reject five flawed intermediates, one after the other, on a nod from me; an' his cattle-fittin's were guaranteed for North Atlantic winter weather. Ye ken what that means? McRimmon an' the Black Bird Line, God bless him!
"Steiner's men were comin' aboard to take charge an' tow her round, an' I passed young Steiner in a boat as I went to the Kite. He looked down his nose; but McRimmon pipes up: 'Here's the man ye owe the Grotkau to at a price, Steiner at a price! Let me introduce Mr. McPhee to you. Maybe ye've met before; but ye've vara little luck in keepin' your men ashore or afloat!
"'McPhee, said he, 'ye're no paid to fight Holdock, Steiner, Chase & Company, Limited, when ye meet. What's wrong between you? "'No more than a tail-shaft rotten as a kail-stump. For ony sakes go an' look, McRimmon. It's a comedietta. "'I'm feared o' yon conversational Hebrew, said he. 'Whaur's the flaw, an' what like? "'A seven-inch crack just behind the boss.
They were all shut when I came aboard, but some one had flooded the engine-room eight feet over all, and shut it off with the worm-an'-wheel gear from the second gratin' afterwards. "'Losh! said McRimmon. 'The ineequity o' man's beyond belief. But it's awfu' discreditable to Holdock, Steiner & Chase, if that came oot in court. "'It's just my own curiosity, I said.
"I could say no more than 'Obey orders, if ye break owners, but on the Kite we believed McRimmon was mad; an' McIntyre of the Lammergeyer was for lockin' him up by some patent legal process he'd found in a book o' maritime law. An' a' that week South American freights rose an' rose. It was sinfu'!
Ye know they call him the Blind Deevil, forbye he onythin' but blind, an' no deevil in his dealin's wi' me McRimmon o' the Black Bird Line. "'What's here, Mister McPhee? said he. "I was past prayin' for by then. 'A Chief Engineer sacked after twenty years' service because he'll not risk the Breslau on the new timin', an' be damned to ye, McRimmon, I said.
Syne we made over to Holyhead, an' Bell opened the last envelope for the last instructions. I was wi' him in the cuddy, an' he threw it over to me, cryin': 'Did ye ever know the like, Mac? "I'll no say what McRimmon had written, but he was far from mad.
Bell fetched the Kite round with the jerk that came close to tearin' the bitts out o' the Grotkau, an' I mind I thanked my Maker in young Bannister's cabin when we were inside Plymouth breakwater. "The first to come aboard was McRimmon, wi' Dandie. Did I tell you our orders were to take anything we found into Plymouth?
"'How do Holdock, Steiner & Chase feed their men? said he. "'Ye can see, I said, knockin' the top off another beer-bottle. 'I did not sign to be starved, McRimmon. "'Nor to swum, either, said he, for Bell had tauld him how I carried the line aboard. 'Well, I'm thinkin' you'll be no loser.
I was a spy and a disgraced employ, an' a corrupter o' young Bannister's morals, an' he'd prosecute me for libel. He went away when I ran up the steps I'd ha' thrown him into the dock if I'd caught him an' there I met McRimmon, wi' Dandie pullin' on the chain, guidin' the auld man among the railway lines.
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