Digital heart book

"You don't believe what you're saying!" I broke out.
"O, I don't know but what I do!" he replied, laying a
hand upon me soothingly. "The thing's very possible.
Only, I'm bothered about something else."
And with that he called a hand, gave him the code
flags, and stepped himself to the main signal
halliards, which vibrated under the weight of the
ensign overhead. A minute later, the American colours,
which we had brought in the boat, replaced the English
red, and PQH was fluttering at the fore.
"Now, then," said Nares, who had watched the breaking
out of his signal with the old-maidish particularity of
an American sailor, "out with those handspikes, and
let's see what water there is in the lagoon."
The bars were shoved home; the barbarous cacophony of
the clanking pump rose in the waist; and streams of
ill-smelling water gushed on deck and made valleys in
the slab guano. Nares leaned on the rail, watching the
steady stream of bilge as though he found some interest
in it.
"What is it that bothers you?" I asked.
"Well, I'll tell you one thing shortly," he replied.


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