But that isn't the point. It isn't how long it takes us, it's can we do it. Had you thought of the salvage end of this thing?”
“Salvage, no. We'll get salvage on the schooner—a bagatelle.”
Madden shook his head, “No, I believe we ought to get salvage on the whole dock.”
“Salvage on the dock!” Caradoc opened his eyes. “We'd be jolly well near millionaires. No, that's impossible. A crew can't salve their own vessel.”
“Yes, but we are not the crew of the dock,” insisted Madden, “at least not the navigating crew. The men of the Vulcan were that. We are nothing but painters——”
“Oh, that's a quibble—nothing but a quibble!” objected Caradoc.
“Well, anyway, I think there is a rule that if a crew rescue their own craft under circumstances of extreme peril, they come in as salvors. I'll look it up in Malone's books when we get back.”
At that moment their ears caught a cheering from the dock, which came to them as a small sound almost lost over the immense flat sea.
