“We were treated very handsomely on board the English vessel, which was a mail steamship, at that time in the employment of the English Government.  I told my story at least half-a-dozen times, sometimes to the officers and sometimes to the men, and whether they believed me or not, I don’t think any one ever created a greater sensation with a story of the sea.

“In an hour or so the officer in charge of the operations on the General Brooks came aboard.  As he passed me on his way to the captain, he said, ‘We found your Water-devil, my man.’  ’And he truly had us in tow?’ I cried.  ‘Yes, you are perfectly correct,’ he said, and went on to make his report to the captain.”

“Now, then,” said the blacksmith, “I suppose we are going to get to the pint.  What did he report?”

“I didn’t hear his report,” said the marine, “but everybody soon knew what had happened to our unlucky vessel, and I can give you the whole story of it.  The General Brooks sailed from San Francisco to Calcutta, with a cargo of stored electricity, contained in large, strongly made boxes.  This I knew nothing about, not being in the habit of inquiring into cargoes.  Well, in some way or other, which I don’t understand, not being a scientific man myself, a magnetic connection was formed between these boxes, and also, if I got the story straight, between them and the iron hull of our vessel, so that it became, in fact, an enormous floating magnet, one of the biggest things of the kind on record.  I have an idea that this magnetic condition was the cause of the trouble to our machinery; every separate part of it was probably turned to a magnet, and they all stuck together.”

“Mr. Cardly,” said Mr. Harberry to the school-master, “I do not suppose you have given much attention to the study of commerce, and therefore are not prepared to give us any information in regard to stored electricity as an article of export from this country; but perhaps you can tell us what stored electricity is, and how it is put into boxes.”

“In regard to the transportation,” answered the school-master, speaking a little slowly, “of encased electric potency, I cannot—­”

“Oh, bless me!” interrupted the marine; “that is all simple enough; you can store electricity and send it all over the world, if you like; in places like Calcutta, I think it must be cheaper to buy it than to make it.  They use it as a motive power for sewing-machines, apple-parers, and it can be used in a lot of ways, such as digging post-holes and churning butter.  When the stored electricity in a box is all used up, all you have to do is to connect a fresh box with your machinery, and there you are, ready to start again.  There was nothing strange about our cargo.  It was the electricity leaking out and uniting itself and the iron ship into a sort of conglomerate magnet that was out of the way.”

“Mr. Cardly,” said Mr. Harberry, “if an iron ship were magnetized in that manner, wouldn’t it have a deranging effect upon the needle of the compass?”