churned the water, but it was as if she had been trying to tow a rock—she couldn’t get an inch out of that ship. Again the pilot blew his whistle and waved his arm to port. We could see the tug’s paddles turning faster and faster, away broad on our bow.

‘For a moment tug and ship seemed to hang motionless in a crowd of moving shipping, and then the terrific strain that evil, stony-hearted brute would always put on everything tore the towing-chock^* clean out of her. The tow-rope surged over, snapping the iron stanchions of the head-rail, one after another, as if they had been sticks of sealing-wax. It was only then I noticed that, in order to have a better view over our heads, Maggie had stepped upon the port anchor as it lay flat on the forecastle-deck.

‘It had been lowered properly into its hard-wood beds, but there had been no time to take a turn with it; anyway, it was quite secure as it was for going into dock; but I could see directly that the tow-rope would sweep under the fluke^* in another second. My heart flew up right into my throat, but not before I had the time to yell out, “Jump clear of that anchor!” …

‘But I hadn’t time to shriek out her name. I don’t suppose she heard me at all. The first touch of the rope against the fluke threw her down heavily; she was up on her feet again quick as lightning, but she was up on the wrong side. There came a horrid scraping sound, and then that anchor, tipping over, rose up like something alive; its great rough iron arm caught her round the waist, seemed to clasp her close with a dreadful hug, and flung itself with her downwards and over in a terrific clang of iron, followed by heavy ringing blows that shook the ship from stem to stern—because the ring-stopper held!’

‘How horrible!’ I said.

‘I used to dream for years afterwards of live anchors catching hold of girls,’ said the man in tweeds, a little wildly. He shuddered.

‘With a most pitiful howl, Charley was over after her almost on the instant. But Lord! He didn’t see as much as a gleam of her red tam-o’-shanter under the water. Nothing! Nothing whatever! In a moment there were half a dozen boats around us, and he got pulled into one. I, with the boatswain and the carpenter, let go the other anchor and brought the ship up somehow. The pilot had gone silly. He walked up and down the forecastle-head, wringing his hands and muttering to himself: “Killing women now! Killing women now!” Not another word could you get out of him.

‘Dusk fell, then a night black as pitch; and, peering upon the river, I heard a low, mournful hail, “Ship ahoy!” Two boatmen came alongside. They had a lantern in their boat, and looked up the ship’s side, holding on to the ladder without a word. I saw a lot of loose fair hair down there. Brrrr!’

He shuddered again.

‘After the tide had turned, Maggie’s body had floated clear of one of the mooring-buoys,’ he explained. ‘I crept aft, feeling half dead, and managed to send a rocket up—to let the other searchers know on the river. And then I slunk away forward like a cur, and spent the night sitting on the bowsprit,^* so as to be as far as possible out of Charley’s way.’

‘Poor fellow!’ I murmured.

‘Yes; poor fellow!’ he repeated musingly. ‘Ah! she wouldn’t let him—not even him—baffle her of her prey. But he made her fast in dock next morning. He did. We hadn’t exchanged a word—not a single look, for that matter. I didn’t want to look at him. When the last rope was fast, he put his hands to his head and stood gazing down at his feet as if trying to remember something. The men waited on the main- deck for the word that ends the voyage. Perhaps that was what he was trying to remember. I gave it for him: “That’ll do, men.”