"Faith, I will," Mr. Reardon promised fervently, and the tube closed
with a click.






CHAPTER XIV





TERENCE Reardon's preparations for the night's work began the instant
he hung up the speaking-tube. The _Narcissus_ carried three assistant
engineers, in consequence of which Mr. Reardon was not required to
stand a watch unless he so elected; although from force of habit
acquired in the days when he had been chief of the _Arab_--a little
three-thousand-ton tramp--and perforce had to stand a regular watch,
he found it very difficult not to spend at least eight hours in every
twenty-four in the engine room. When, eventually, he came to a
realization that his job was not to make the engines behave, but to
see that they behaved properly, he spent more of his time on deck, and
put in only a few hours below during the watch of the third assistant
engineer--the third assistant being a young man in whom the chief
reposed exactly that degree of confidence a chief engineer should
always repose in a third assistant. Mr. Reardon, therefore, was at
liberty to leave the engine-room whenever he felt so disposed; and