for a certain time and the great stars of those mild skies beheld her playing in the comer among islands where are never found all that while she smelt and the smell though was not one evening calamity descended upon her from the island of and she fled while her crew at a fat black and brown puffing far behind they knew to the last revolution the capacity of every boat on those seas that they were anxious to avoid a british ship with a good conscience does not a a rule flee from the man of war of a foreign power and it is also considered a breach of etiquette to stop and search british ships at sea these things the of the did not pause to prove but held on at an eleven knots an hour till nightfall one thing only he overlooked the power that kept an expensive steam moving up and down those waters they had the two regular ships of the station with an ease that bred contempt had newly brought up a third and a f boat with a clean bottom to help the work and that was why the driving hard from the east to the west found herself at daylight in such a position that she could not help seeing an arrangement of four the devil and the deep sea flags a and a half behind which read heave to or take the consequences she had her choice and she took it the end came when on her lighter draught she tried to draw away northward over a friendly the shell that arrived by way of the chief engineer s cabin was some five inches in with a practice not a bursting charge it had been intended to cross her bows and that was why it knocked the framed portrait of the chief engineer s and she was a very pretty on to the floor his wash hand stand crossed the into the engine room and striking on a grating dropped directly in front of the forward engine where it burst neatly both the that held the connecting rod to the forward what follows is worth consideration the forward engine had no more work to do its released rod therefore drove up fiercely with nothing to check it and started most of the nuts of the cover it came down again the full weight of the steam behind it and the foot of the connecting rod useless as the leg of a man with a ankle flung out to the right and struck the or right hand cast iron supporting of the forward engine it clean through about six inches above the base and the upper portion three inches towards the ship s side there the connecting rod meantime the after engine being as yet went on with its work and in so doing brought at its next revolution the devil and the deep sea the of the forward engine which smote the already connecting rod bending it and the rod cross the big cross piece thai up and down so smoothly the cross head sideways in the guides and in addition to putting further pressure on the already broken supporting cracked the port or left hand supporting in two or three places there being nothing more that could be made to move the engines brought up all with a that seemed to lift the a foot out of the water and the engine room staff opening every steam outlet that they could find in the confusion arrived on deck somewhat but calm there was a below of things a rushing rattling noise that did not last for more than a minute it was the machinery itself on the spur of the moment to a hundred altered conditions mr one foot on the upper grating inclined his ear sideways and groaned you cannot stop engines working at twelve knots an hour in three seconds without them the slid forward in a cloud of steam shrieking like a horse there was nothing more to do the five inch shell with a reduced charge had settled the situation and when you are full all three holds of strictly preserved pearls when you have cleaned out the bank the sea horse bank and four other banks from one end to the other of the when you have out the very heart of a rich government so that five years will not repair your wrong you the devil and the deep sea must smile and take what is in store but the reflected as a put out from the man of war that he had been on the high seas with the british several of disposed above him and tried to comfort from the thought where said the stolid naval lieutenant himself aboard where are those dam pearls they were there beyond no could do away with the fearful smell of decayed the dresses and the shell they were there to the value of seventy thousand more or less and every the man of war was annoyed for she had used up many tons of coal she had strained her and worse than all her officers and crew had been hurried every one on the was arrested and several times as each officer came aboard then they were told by what they esteemed to be the equivalent of a that they were to consider themselves prisoners and finally were put imder arrest it s not the least good said the you d much better send us a be you are arrest was the reply where the devil do you expect we are going to et cape to we re helpless you ve got to tow us into somewhere and explain why you fired on us mr we re helpless are n t we ruined from end to end said the man of machinery if she rolls the forward will come down and go through her bottom 