You runs a rope fore an' aft, an' you erects
perpendick-u-arly two canvas tubes, which you distends with cane hoops,
thus 'avin' as many funnels as a destroyer. At the word o' command, up
they go like a pair of concertinas, an' consequently collapses equally
'andy when requisite. Comin' aft we shall doubtless overtake the Dawlish
bathin'-machine proprietor fittin' on her bustle."
Mr. Pyecroft whispered this in my ear as Moorshed moved toward a group at
the stern.
"None of us who ain't built that way can be destroyers, but we can look as
near it as we can. Let me explain to you, Sir, that the stern of a
Thorneycroft boat, which we are _not_, comes out in a pretty bulge,
totally different from the Yarrow mark, which again we are not. But, on
the other 'and, _Dirk, Stiletto, Goblin, Ghoul, Djinn_, and _A-frite_--Red
Fleet dee-stroyers, with 'oom we hope to consort later on terms o' perfect
equality--_are_ Thorneycrofts, an' carry that Grecian bend which we are
now adjustin' to our _arriere-pensee_--as the French would put it--by
means of painted canvas an' iron rods bent as requisite. Between you an'
me an' Frankie, we are the _Gnome_, now in the Fleet Reserve at Pompey--
Portsmouth, I should say."
"The first sea will carry it all away," said Moorshed, leaning gloomily
outboard, "but it will do for the present."
"We've a lot of _prima facie_ evidence about us," Mr. Pyecroft went on.
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