CHAPTER 24 MY INCOGNITO IS EXPLODED
AFTER a close study of the face of the pilot on watch, I was satisfied that I had never seen him before; so I went up there. The pilot inspected me; I re-inspected the pilot. These customary preliminaries over, I sat down on the high bench, and he faced about and went on with his work. Every detail of the pilot-house was familiar to me, with one exception,—a large-mouthed tube under the breast-board. I puzzled over that thing a considerable time; then gave up and asked what it was for.
‘To hear the engine-bells through.’
It was another good contrivance which ought to have been invented half a century sooner. So I was thinking, when the pilot asked—
‘Do you know what this rope is for?’
I managed to get around this question, without committing myself.
