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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cappy Ricks, by Peter B. Kyne
+
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+Title: Cappy Ricks
+
+Author: Peter B. Kyne
+
+Release Date: May, 2004  [EBook #5738]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 19, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CAPPY RICKS ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was scanned by Paul J. Hollander.
+
+
+
+
+CAPPY RICKS
+
+or The Subjugation of Matt Peasley
+
+by Peter B. Kyne
+
+
+
+
+TO THE IDEAL AMERICAN SAILOR
+
+As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
+
+Captain Ralph E. Peasley,
+of Jonesport, Maine,
+
+Who skippered the first five-masted schooner ever built, brought her,
+on that first voyage, through the worst typhoon that ever blew, and
+upon arriving at the Yang Tse Kiang River for the first time in his
+adventurous career, decided he could not trust a Chinese pilot and
+established a record by sailing her up himself!
+
+
+Captain I. N. Hibberd,
+of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
+
+Sometime master of the American clipper ship, Cyrus Wakefield, who, at
+the age of twenty-five, broke three world's records in one voyage: San
+Francisco to Liverpool and back, eight months and two days; Liverpool
+to San Francisco, one hundred days; from the equator to San Francisco,
+eleven days.  The clipper ship is gone but the skipper remains, an
+undefeated champion.
+
+
+Captain William P. Cantey,
+of San Francisco, California,
+
+Sometime mate of the brig Galilee, who, with his naked hands,
+convinced in thirty-five minutes nine larger men than himself of the
+incontrovertible fact that you cannot keep a good man down.
+
+
+
+TO THE AMERICAN SHIPOWNER
+
+As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
+
+John H. Rossiter,
+Manager of W. R. Grace & Co.,
+of San Francisco.
+
+Edwin A. Christenson,
+President of the Sudden & Christenson S.S. Line,
+of San Francisco.
+
+John R. Hanify,
+President of the John R. Hanify Company,
+of San Francisco.
+
+
+
+TO THE PACIFIC COAST LUMBERMAN
+
+As exemplified in the person of my good friend,
+
+Augustus J. ("Gus") Russell,
+California Manager for the Portland Lumber Company, and my personal
+representative, without salary, in the wholesale lumber trade, ever
+since I abandoned lumber for literature.
+
+
+
+TO FREIGHT, SHIP, AND MARINE INSURANCE BROKERS
+
+As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
+
+Messrs. E. B. Smith, Oscar J. Beyfuss, and Allan Hayes.
+
+
+This volume is dedicated, without charge for the advertising but with
+profound appreciation of the part they have made in making this book
+possible.  With the author they must bear an equal burden of whatever
+of praise or censure shall entail.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I. Master of Many Ships and Skipper of None
+II. The Man from Blue Water
+III. Under the Blue Star Flag
+IV. Bad News from Cape Town
+V. Matt Peasley Assumes Office
+VI. Wordy War at a Dollar a Word
+VII. Cappy Ricks Makes Bad Medicine
+VIII. All Hands and Feet to the Rescue
+IX. Mr. Murphy Advises Preparedness
+X. The Battle of Table Bay
+XI. Mr. Skinner Receives a Telegram
+XII. The Campaign Opens
+XIII. An Old Friend Returns and Cappy Leads Another Ace
+XIV. Insult Added to Injury
+XV. Rumors of War
+XVI. War!
+XVII. Cappy Forces an Armistice
+XVIII. The War is Renewed
+XIX. Capp Seeks Peace
+XX. Peace at Last!
+XXI. Matt Peasley Meets a Talkative Stranger
+XXII. Face to Face
+XXIII. Business and--
+XXIV. The Clean Up
+XXV. Cappy Proves Himself a Despot
+XXVI. Matt Peasley in Exile
+XXVII. Promotion
+XXVIII. Cappy Has a Heart
+XXIX. Nature Takes Her Course
+XXX. Mr. Skinner Hears a Lecture
+XXXI. Internal Combustion
+XXXII. Skinner Proposes--and Cappy Ricks Disposes
+XXXIII. Cappy's Plans Demolished
+XXXIV. A Gift From the Gods
+XXXV. A Dirty Yankee Trick
+XXXVI. Cappy Forbids the Bans--Yet
+XXXVII. Matt Peasley Becomes a Shipowner
+XXXVIII. Working Capital
+XXXIX. Easy Money
+XL. The Cataclysm
+XLI. When Pain and Anguish Wring the Brow
+XLII. Unexpected Developments
+XLIII. Cappy Plans a Knock-out
+XLIV. Skinner Develops into a Human Being
+XLV. Cappy Pulls Off a Wedding
+XLVI. A Ship Forgotten
+XLVII. The Tail Goes with the Hide
+XLVIII. Victory
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MASTER OF MANY SHIPS AND SKIPPER OF NONE
+
+
+A psychologist would have termed Alden P. Ricks an individualist, but
+his associates in the wholesale lumber and shipping trade of the
+Pacific Coast proclaimed him a character.
+
+In his youth he had made one voyage round Cape Horn as a cabin boy,
+his subsequent nautical experience having been confined to the
+presidency of the Blue Star Navigation Company and occasional voyages
+as a first-cabin passenger.  Notwithstanding this apparent lack of
+salt-water wisdom, however, his intimate knowledge of ships and the
+men who go down to the sea in them, together with his very distinct
+personality, had conduced to provide him with a courtesy title in his
+old age.
+
+It is more than probable that, had Alden P. Ricks been a large,
+commanding person possessed of the dignity the average citizen
+associates with men of equal financial rating, the Street would have
+called him Captain Ricks.  Had he lacked these characteristics, but
+borne nevertheless even a remote resemblance to a retired mariner, his
+world would have hailed him as Old Cap Ricks; but since he was what he
+was--a dapper, precise, shrewd, lovable little old man with mild,
+paternal blue eyes, a keen sense of humor and a Henry Clay collar,
+which latter, together with a silk top hat, had distinguished him on
+'Change for forty years--it was inevitable that along the Embarcadero
+and up California Street he should bear the distinguishing appellation
+of Cappy.  In any other line of human endeavor he would have been
+called Pappy--he was that type of man.
+
+Cappy Ricks had so much money, amassed in the wholesale lumber and
+shipping business, that he had to engage some very expensive men to
+take care of it for him.  He owned the majority of the stock of the
+Ricks Lumber and Logging Company, with sawmills and timberlands in
+California, Oregon and Washington; his young men had to sell a million
+feet of lumber daily in order to keep pace with the output, while the
+vessels of the Blue Star Navigation Company, also controlled by Cappy,
+freighted it.  There were thirty-odd vessels in the Blue Star
+fleet--windjammers and steam schooners; and Cappy was registered as
+managing owner of every one.
+
+Following that point in his career when the young fellows on the
+Street, discovering that he was a true-blue sport, had commenced to
+fraternize with him and call him Cappy, the old gentleman ceased to
+devote his attention to the details of his business.  He was just
+beginning to enjoy life; so he shifted the real work of his
+multifarious interests to the capable shoulders of a Mr. John P.
+Skinner, who fitted into his niche in the business as naturally as the
+kernel of a healthy walnut fits its shell.  Mr. Skinner was a man
+still on the sunny side of middle life, smart, capable, cold-blooded,
+a little bumptious, and, like the late Julius Caesar, ambitious.
+
+No sooner had Cappy commenced to take life easy than Skinner commenced
+to dominate the business.  He attended an efficiency congress and came
+home with a collection of newfangled ideas that eliminated from the
+office all the joy and contentment old Cappy Ricks had been a
+life-time installing.  He inaugurated card systems and short cuts in
+bookkeeping that drove Cappy to the verge of insanity, because he
+could never go to the books himself and find out anything about his
+own business.  He had to ask Mr. Skinner--which made Skinner an
+important individual.
+
+With the passage of five years the general manager was high and low
+justice in Cappy's offices, and had mastered the not-too-difficult art
+of dominating his employer, for Cappy seldom seriously disagreed with
+those he trusted.  He saved all his fighting force for his
+competitors.
+
+However, Cappy's interest in the Blue Star Navigation Company did not
+wane with the cessation of his activities as chief kicker.
+Ordinarily, Mr. Skinner bossed the navigation company as he bossed the
+lumber business, for Cappy's private office was merely headquarters
+for receiving mail, reading the newspapers, receiving visitors,
+smoking an after-luncheon cigar, and having a little nap from three
+o'clock until four, at which hour Cappy laid aside the cares of
+business and put in two hours at bridge in his club.
+
+Despite this apparent indifference to business, however, Mr. Skinner
+handled the navigation company with gloves; for, if Cappy dozed in his
+office, he had a habit of keeping one eye open, so to speak, and every
+little while he would wake up and veto an order of Skinner's, of which
+the latter would have been willing to take an oath Cappy had never
+heard.  In the matter of engaging new skippers or discharging old ones
+Mr. Skinner had to be very careful.  Cappy always declared that any
+clerk can negotiate successfully a charter at the going rates in a
+stiff market, but skippers are, in the final analysis, the Genii of
+the Dividends.  And Cappy knew skippers.  He could get more loyalty
+out of them with a mere pat on the back and a kindly word than could
+Mr. Skinner, with all his threats, nagging and driving, yet he was an
+employer who demanded a full measure of service, and never permitted
+sentiment to plead for an incompetent.  And his ships were his pets;
+in his affections they occupied a position but one degree removed from
+that occupied by his only child, in consequence of which he was mighty
+particular who hung up his master's ticket in the cabin of a Blue Star
+ship.  Some idea of the scrupulous care with which he examined all
+applicants for a skipper's berth may be gleaned from the fact that any
+man discharged from a Blue Star ship stood as much chance of obtaining
+a berth with one of Cappy Ricks' competitors as a celluloid dog
+chasing an asbestos cat through Hades.
+
+The reader will readily appreciate, therefore, the apprehensions which
+assailed Cappy Ricks when the Blue Star Navigation Company discovered
+it had on its payroll one Matthew Peasley, a Nobody from Nowhere, who
+not only had the insufferable impudence to apply for a job skippering
+the finest windjammer in the fleet, but when rebuffed in no uncertain
+terms, refused to withdraw his application, and defied his owners to
+fire him.  Such a preposterous state of affairs borders so closely on
+the realm of fancy as to require explanation; hence, for the nonce let
+us leave Cappy Ricks and Mr. Skinner to their sordid task of squeezing
+dividends out of the Blue Star Navigation Company and turn the
+searchlight of inquiry upon the amazing Matthew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MAN FROM BLUE WATER
+
+
+If, instead of advancing the theory that man sprang from a monkey,
+Darwin had elected to nominate the duck for that dubious honor, there
+is no doubt but that he would have pointed to the Peasley family, of
+Thomaston, Maine, as evidence of the correctness of his theory of
+evolution.  The most casual student of natural history knows that the
+instant a duckling chips its shell it toddles straightway to the
+nearest water.  The instant a male Peasley could cut his mother's
+apron strings, he, also, made for the nearest water, for the Peasleys
+had always been sailors, a statement which a perusal of the tombstones
+in Thomaston cemetery will amply justify.  Indeed, a Peasley who had
+not acquired his master's ticket prior to his twenty-fifth birthday
+was one of two things--a disgrace to the family or a corpse.
+Consequently, since the traditions of his tribe were very strong in
+Matthew Peasley VI, it occasioned no comment in Thomaston when, having
+acquired a grammar school education, he answered the call of his
+destiny and fared forth to blue water and his first taste of dog's
+body and salt horse.
+
+When he was fourteen years old and very large for his age, Matt
+commenced his apprenticeship in a codfisher on the Grand Banks, which,
+when all is said and done, constitutes the finest training school in
+the world for sailors.  By the time he was seventeen he had made one
+voyage to Rio de Janeiro in a big square-rigger out of Portland; and
+so smart and capable an A.B. was he for his years that the Old Man
+took a shine to him.  Confidentially he informed young Matt that if
+the latter would stay by the ship, in due course a billet as third
+mate should be the reward of his fealty.  The Old Man didn't need a
+third mate any more than he needed a tail, but Matt Peasley looked
+like a comer to him and he wanted an excuse to encourage the boy by
+berthing him aft; also it sounds far better to be known as a third
+mate instead of a mate's bosun, which was, in reality, the position
+the Old Man had promised Matt.  The latter promptly agreed to this
+program and the skipper loaned him his copy of Bowditch.
+
+Upon his return from his first voyage as third mate Matt went up for
+his second mate's certificate and passed very handily.  Naturally he
+expected prompt promotion, but the Old Man knew the value of
+experience in a second mate--also the value of years and physical
+weight; so he informed young Matt he was entirely too precocious and
+that to sail as second mate before he was nineteen might tend to swell
+his ego.  Consequently Matt made a voyage to Liverpool and back as
+third mate before the Old Man promoted him.
+
+For a year, Matt Peasley did nicely; then, in a gale off the Orinoco
+River, with the captain too ill to appear on deck, the first mate went
+by the board, leaving the command of the ship to young Matt.  She was
+dismasted at the time, but the lad brought her into Rio on the stumps,
+thus attracting some little attention to himself from his owners, who
+paid his passage back to Portland by steamer and found a second mate's
+berth for him in one of their clipper ships bound round the Horn.
+
+Of course Matt was too young to know they had their eyes on him for
+future skipper material and were sending him around Cape Horn for the
+invaluable experience he would encounter on such a voyage.  All he
+realized was that he was going round the Horn, as became one of the
+House of Peasley, no member of which would ever regard him as a real
+sailor until he could point to a Cape Horn diploma as evidence that he
+had graduated from the school for amateurs.
+
+Matt Peasley lacked two months of his twentieth birthday when he
+stepped onto a San Francisco dock, in his pocket a highly
+complimentary discharge as second mate from the master of the clipper
+ship--for Matt had elected to quit.  In fact, he had to, for on the
+way round the mate had picked on him and called him Sonny and Mother's
+Darling Boy; and Matt, having, in the terminology of the forecastle,
+come aboard through the hawse pipes, knew himself for a man and a
+sailor, despite the paucity of whiskers on his big, square boyish
+chin.
+
+Accordingly he had advised the mate to address him only in the line of
+duty, on which occasions he desired to be referred to as Mr. Peasley,
+and, the mate demurring from this program, the customary maritime
+fracas had ensued.  Consequently, somebody had to quit on arrival at
+San Francisco; and since, Matt was the last to come, he was the first
+to go.  On the strength of his two previous discharges he shipped as
+second mate on the bark Andrew Welch, for a voyage to Honolulu and
+back; then, his services as second mate being all in, he went before
+the inspectors for his first mate's ticket and was awarded an
+unlimited license.
+
+Matt was now past twenty; and, though not fully filled out, he was big
+enough to be a chief kicker anywhere.  Six feet three in his bare
+feet; two hundred pounds in the buff; lean, lithe and supple as a
+panther, the mere sight of his big lumpy shoulders would have been
+sufficient to have quelled an incipient mutiny.  Nevertheless,
+graduate that he was of a hard, hard school, his face was that of an
+innocent, trusting, good-natured, immature boy, proclaiming him
+exactly what he knew his men called him--a big, over-grown kid.  He
+hated himself for his glorious youth.
+
+"You're pretty much of a child to have an unlimited ticket, my son,"
+the supervising inspector informed him.  "However, you've had the
+experience and your record is far above the average, so we're going to
+issue the license; but if you'll take a bit of advice from an old
+sailor you'll be content to go as second mate for a year or two more,
+until your jowls blacken up a bit and you get a trifle thicker in the
+middle."
+
+With the impudence and irreverence of his tender years, however, Matt
+Peasley scorned this well-meant advice, notwithstanding the fact that
+he knew it to be sound, for by shipping as second mate and remaining
+in the same ship, sooner or later his chance would come.  The first
+mate would quit, or be promoted or drowned, or get drunk; and then his
+shoes would be waiting for Matt tried and true, and the holder of a
+first mate's ticket.
+
+However, there is an old saw to the effect that youth must be served,
+and young Matt desired a helping totally disproportionate to his
+years, if not to his experience; hence he elected to ignore the fact
+that shipmasters are wary of chief mates until they have first tried
+them out as second mates and learned their strength and their
+weaknesses.  Being very human, Matt thought he should prove the
+exception to a fairly hard-and-fast rule.
+
+He had slept one night on a covered dock and skipped three meals
+before it occurred to him that he had pursued the wrong tactics.  He
+was too far from Thomaston, Maine, where the majority of sailors have
+gone to school with their captains.  Back home there were a dozen
+masters who knew his people, who knew him and his proved ability; but
+out here on the Pacific Coast the skippers were nearly all
+Scandinavians, and Matt had to show them something besides his
+documents.
+
+He had failed signally to procure a single opportunity to demonstrate
+his fitness for an executive position.  After abandoning his plan to
+ship as chief mate he had sought a second mate's berth, but failing to
+find one, and with each idle day making deeper inroads into his scant
+savings, he had at length descended to the ignominy of considering a
+job as bosun.  Even that was not forthcoming, and now his money was
+entirely dissipated.
+
+Now, when a big overgrown kid finds himself penniless three thousand
+miles from a friend and minus three meals in succession, the fourth
+omission of the daily bread is not likely to pass without violent
+protest.  Matt was still a growing boy, with a growing boy's appetite;
+consequently on the morning of his second day of fasting he came to
+the conclusion that, with so much of his life before him, a few months
+wasted would, after all, have no material bearing on his future; so he
+accepted a two months advance from a crimp and shipped aboard the
+American barkentine Retriever as a common A.B.--a most disgraceful
+action on the part of a boy, who, since eighteenth birthday, had been
+used to having old sailors touch their foretop to him and address him
+as "Mr. Peasley, sir."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UNDER THE BLUE STAR FLAG
+
+
+Matt had been attracted to the barkentine Retriever for two very
+potent reasons--the first was a delicious odor of stew emanating from
+her galley; the second was her house flag, a single large,
+five-pointed blue star on a field of white with scarlet trimming.
+Garnished left and right with a golden wreath and below with the word
+Captain, Matt Peasley knew that house flag, in miniature, would look
+exceedingly well on the front of a uniform cap; for he now made up his
+mind to enter one service and stick to it until his abilities should
+receive their inevitable reward.  To ship as a foremast hand and rise
+to captain would be a proud record; so Matt throttled his pride and
+faced the future with confidence, and a stomach quite filled with very
+good beef stew.
+
+From the cook he learned that the Retriever carried a million feet of
+lumber; that she was owned by Cappy Ricks; that Cappy Ricks was the
+president of the Blue Star Navigation Company, and the most
+contemptible old scoundrel in all the world; that the skipper was a
+blue-nose and a devil and a fine man rolled into one; that the
+barkentine could sail like a yacht; and that presently they would
+up-hook and off to Grays Harbor, Washington, there to load a cargo of
+fir lumber for Cape Town.  And would Matt mind slipping ashore and
+buying the cook a bottle of whiskey, for which the latter would settle
+very minute he could get an advance out of the Old Man.  No?
+Disgusted, the cook rattled his pans and dismissed Matt as one
+unworthy of further confidence.
+
+Just before the tug came alongside to snake her outside the Heads, the
+mate came aboard with his leerail pretty well under and was indiscreet
+enough to toss a piece of his lip at the Old Man.  Five minutes later
+he was paid and off and kicked out on the dock, while the cook packed
+his sea bag and tossed it overside after him.  The captain, thereupon,
+bawled for the second mate, who came running.  Matt noticed this and
+decided that should the Old Man ever bawl for him he would come
+running too.
+
+"Mr.Swenson, you have a chief mate's license, have you not?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well.  You're the first mate.  Mr. Lindstrom"--turning to the
+bosun--"you've waited a year for your chance, and here it is.  You're
+the second mate.  Bosun!"  He was looking straight at Matt Peasley as
+he spoke.  Matt did not stir.  "Hey, there," the skipper roared, "you
+big mountain of meat, step lively!"
+
+Matt stepped lively.
+
+"I am not the bosun, sir," he explained.  "I'm just A.B."
+
+"How dare you contradict me?" the Old Man growled.  "I tell you, you
+don't know what you are yet, barring the fact that you're an American,
+and the only one, with the exception of myself, in the whole damned
+Scowegian crew.  Do you think you could get away with a bosun's job?"
+
+"I could get away with your job if I had the chance, sir," Matt
+declared, almost impudently.
+
+"There she blows!" the Old Man declared.  "Bless me, if you're not a
+Native Son!  Nobody but a Native Son would be that fresh.  I suppose
+this is your second voyage, you puling baby?"
+
+Matt Peasley's dander was up instantly.
+
+"I'm sailor enough to know my way alow or aloft in any weather, sir,"
+he retorted.
+
+The captain saw his opening and struck.
+
+"What's the ring-tail?" he demanded.
+
+"It's a studdin'-s'l on the gaff of a fore-an'-aft, sail, sir.  You
+haven't got one on the Retriever, sir."
+
+"Huh!  You've been reading W. Clark Russell's sea yarns," the skipper
+charged.  "He was quite a pen-an'-paper sailor when it came to
+square-rigged ships, but he didn't have much to say about six-masted
+schooners.  You see, they didn't build them in his day.  Now then,
+son, name the sticks on a six-legged schooner, and be sure and name
+'em right."
+
+"Fore, main, mizzen, spanker, jigger and driver, sir," Matt fired back
+at him.
+
+"Bully for you, my son.  You're the third mate.  Cappy Ricks allows me
+the luxury of a third mate whenever I run across a young fellow that
+appears to be worth a whoop in hell, so grab your duds, and go aft,
+and don't bring any cockroaches with you.  I'll dig up a bosun among
+the squareheads."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"Name?"
+
+"Mr. Peasley, sir."
+
+Since he was no longer an A B., young Matt concluded he might as well
+accord himself the respect due him as a ship's officer; so he tacked
+on the Mister, just to show the Old Man he knew his place.  The master
+noted that; also, the slurring of the sir as only a sailor can slur
+it.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if you'd do," he remarked as Matt passed him on
+his way to the forecastle for his dunnage.
+
+On his way back he carried his bag over his shoulder and his framed
+license in his left hand.  Two savages were following with his sea
+chest.
+
+I do declare!" the skipper cried.  "If that lubberly boy hasn't got
+some sort of a ticket!  Let me see it, Mr. Peasley."  And he snatched
+it out of his grasp.
+
+"So, you're a first mate of sail, for any ocean and any tonnage, eh?"
+he said presently.  "Are you sure this ticket doesn't belong to your
+father?"
+
+"Sir," declared the exasperated Matt, "I never asked you for this job
+of third mate; and if I've got to stomach your insults to hold it down
+I don't want it.  That's my ticket and I'm fully capable of living up
+to it."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that, Mr. Peasley, because if you're not I'll be the
+first one to find it out--and don't you forget it!  I'll have no
+marine impostors aboard my ship.  Where do they ship little boys
+before the mast, Mr. Peasley?"
+
+"On the Grand Banks, sir."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the skipper; "but really I thought you were
+a Native Son.  My father was drowned there thirty years ago."
+
+"The Peasleys have all died on the Banks sir," Matt replied, much
+mollified.
+
+"We'll go down into my cabin and drink a toast to their memory, Mr.
+Peasley.  It isn't often we skippers out here meet one of our own."
+
+It is hard for a Down-Easter, even though he may have lost the speech
+of his people, not to be, partial to his own; and Captain Noah
+Kendall, of the barkentine Retriever, was all the cook had declared
+him to be.  He scolded his Norsk mates so bitterly while the vessel
+was taking on cargo at Grays Harbor that both came and asked for their
+time an hour before the vessel sailed.  However, the old man was aware
+they would do this, for he had handled that breed too long not to know
+that the Scandinavian sailor on the Pacific Coast quits his job on the
+slightest pretext, but never dreams of leaving until he knows that by
+so doing he can embarrass the master or owners.  Even if the mates had
+not quit, Kendall would have discharged them, for it had been in his
+mind to try Matt Peasley out as chief mate, and acquire a second mate
+with a sweeter disposition than that possessed by the late incumbent.
+
+No sooner had the Norsk mates departed than Captain Noah Kendall paid
+a visit to Captain McBride in command of the schooner Nokomis (also a
+Blue Star vessel), which had arrived that day and was waiting for the
+Retriever's berth at the mill dock, in order to commence loading.
+
+"Mac," quoth Captain Noah, "what kind of a second mate have you got?"
+
+"A no-good Irish hound named Murphy," McBride replied promptly, for he
+had heard rumors of war aboard the Retriever and something told him
+Kendall had come to borrow his second mate, in order that the
+Retriever might tow out immediately.  A canny, cunning lad was
+McBride, but for all his Scotch blood he was no match for Captain Noah
+Kendall.
+
+"I heard he wasn't worth two squirts of bilge water," Captain Noah
+lied glibly.  "However, I'll take him off your hands and reimburse you
+for the expense of bringing his successor down from Seattle or up from
+San Francisco.  My two mates have just asked to be paid off, and
+despite the fact that they have signed articles, I've let them go.  No
+use going to sea with a pair of sulky mates, you know.  Fortunately, I
+had a young Down-Easter aboard and I've put him in as first mate--"
+
+"Noah," urged McBride.  "I wouldn't advise you to take this man
+Murphy."
+
+"Beggars can't be choosers," Captain Noah replied mournfully.  "The
+tide serves in half an hour and the tug is alongside the Retriever
+now.  If I have to wire to Seattle for a second mate I may not be able
+to get one--and if I am forced to wire to San Francisco I may be stuck
+here a week.  I've shipped my crew and paid them all in advance, and
+if I don't get to sea in an hour I'll lose every man Jack of them, and
+have it all to do over again."
+
+"Well, I'll speak to the fellow for you, Noah," McBride suggested, and
+darted out of the cabin to interview the said Murphy.  Two minutes
+later he was back.
+
+"Sorry, Noah, but Murphy says he wouldn't sign up for a trip to Cape
+Town at chief mate's wages."
+
+"I'm sorry, too, Mac," Captain Noah answered resignedly.  "I'm sorry
+you're such a liar.  My grief is only compensated by the knowledge
+that Murphy is not aboard the Nokomis at this minute, and, if you did
+any talking while you were out on deck a minute ago you must have
+talked to yourself.  Do I get this man, Murphy and thus save the Blue
+Star Navigation Company five hundred dollars or must I wire Cappy
+Ricks to wire you to do your duty by the company?"
+
+"You infernal thief," shouted McBride, "you're taking the best second
+mate I've had in years."
+
+"Never mind that.  Do I get Mike Murphy peaceably or--"
+
+"You've got him already" McBride charged.
+
+"You're better at telling the truth than you are at lying, Angus
+McBride.  You'll have plenty of time to get a second mate while the
+Nokomis is loading, and you can send the bill for his railroad fare to
+Cappy Ricks and tell him to charge it to the Retriever."
+
+McBride tried to appear aggrieved, but failed.  He burst out laughing,
+and reached for the locker in which he kept the schooner's supply of
+grog.
+
+"Would it was prussic acid," he growled.
+
+"Don't say I went behind your back and stole your mate," Kendall
+retorted.  "And if your second mate is as poor as your whiskey," he
+added, piling insult on to injury, "you can have him back when I
+return from Cape Town."
+
+Matt Peasley felt that he was going to like Michael J. Murphy.  The
+latter was Irish, but he had left Ireland at a very tender age and
+was, to all intents and purposes, a breezy American citizen, and while
+he wore a slight cauliflower in one ear, his broad, kindly humorous
+face and alert, bustling manner was assurance that he would be an easy
+man to get along with.  When the Old Man introduced him to Matt, he
+extended a horny right hand that closed on Matt's like the jaws of a
+dredger, the while he ran an equally horny left hand up and down the
+chief mate's arm.
+
+"I'm sure we'll get along famously together, Mr. Murphy," Matt
+suggested.
+
+Again Mr. Murphy ran his hand over that great arm.
+
+"You know it!" he declared with conviction.
+
+Captain Noah laughed aloud, and as Matt scampered forward over the
+deckload, herding his savages before him, to receive the tug's breast
+line and make it fast on the bitts the skipper turned to Mr. Murphy.
+
+"There's a lad for you," he declared.
+
+"He has manners and muscle, and those are two things that seldom go
+together," Mr. Murphy rejoined.  "He's Down-Easter, I see.  Did Cappy
+Ricks send him to you, sir?"
+
+"No--not that he wouldn't, however, if he'd ever met the boy.  The
+crimp brought him aboard with the sweepings and scrapings of San
+Francisco."
+
+"I hope he wasn't drunk--like the rest," Mr. Murphy answered
+anxiously.  "'Twould be a sin to desecrate that lovely body with
+whiskey."
+
+"He was bung up and bilge free--and that's why he's chief kicker now.
+The hawser's fast for'd, Mr. Murphy.  Cast off your stern line."
+
+"All clear for'd, sir," Matt Peasley's shout came ranging down the
+wind, and the tug snatched the big barkentine out from the mill dock
+into the stream where she cast her off, put her big towing hawser
+aboard, paid it out and started for Grays Harbor bar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BAD NEWS FROM CAPE TOWN
+
+
+On a certain day in February Mr. Skinner, coming into Cappy Ricks'
+office with a cablegram in his hand, found his employer doubled up at
+his desk and laughing in senile glee.
+
+"I have a cablegram--" Mr. Skinner began.
+
+"I have a good story," Cappy interrupted.  "Let me tell it to you,
+Skinner.  Oh, dear!  I believe this is about going to kill the boys up
+on 'Change when I tell them."  He wiped his eyes, controlled his mirth
+and turned to the general manager.  "Skinner," he said, "did you know
+I had gotten back into the harness while you were up at the Astoria
+mill?  Well I did, Skinner.  I had to, you know.  If it was the last
+act of my life I had to square accounts with that man Hudner, of the
+Black Butte Lumber Company."
+
+Mr. Skinner nodded.  He was aware of the feud that existed between
+Cappy and Hudner, and the reasons therefor.  The latter had stolen
+from Cappy a stenographer, who had grown to spinsterhood in his
+employ--one of those rare stenographers who do half a man's thinking
+for him.  Cappy always paid a little more than the top of the market
+for clever service; and whenever, a competitor stole one of his
+favorite employees, sooner or later that competitor paid for his sins,
+"through the nose."
+
+"While you were away," Cappy went on, "I met Hudner a luncheon.
+'Hudner,' I said, 'It's been my experience that nobody gets anything
+good in this world without paying for it--and you stole the finest
+stenographer I ever had.  So I'm going to make you pay for her.  See
+if I don't.'  Well, sir, Skinner, he laughed at me and told me to go
+as far as I liked; and, a number of my youthful friends being present,
+they each bet Hudner a five-dollar hat I'd hang his hide on my fence
+within sixty days.
+
+"We11, Skinner, you know me.  Any time it's raining duck soup you'll
+never catch me out with a fork; and, of course, when the boys showed
+such faith in my ability to trim Hudner I had to make good.  I have a
+letter from Hudner to prove it; and to-day at luncheon, when we're all
+gathered at the Round Table, I'm going to read that letter and my
+reply to the same; and Hudner will have fifty dollars' worth of hat
+bills to pay!"
+
+"How did you tan his pelt?" Skinner queried.
+
+"Easy!  While you were away I chartered his steamer Chehalis for a
+load of redwood lumber from Humboldt Bay to San Francisco at three
+dollars and a half a thousand feet.  Of course, you know a boat like
+the Chehalis, with a big pay-roll, will break just even on such a low
+freight rate; but inasmuch as he was going to lay the Chehalis up in
+Oakland Creek, owing to lack of business, when I offered him a load of
+redwood he concluded to take it, just to keep the vessel moving and
+pay expenses.  I stipulated discharge in San Francisco Bay.
+
+"Well, sir, when the Chehalis got to our mill, Skinner, I ordered them
+to load her with sinkers--oh! oh, this will be the death of me yet,
+Skinner.  And we gave her poor dispatch in loading.  Then she had to
+lay behind the bar two days longer before she could cross out; and
+when she got here I ordered her to discharge into the British bark
+Glengarry--and discharging from one vessel in to another is the
+slowest work in the world.  And Hudner--he's--written--me, Skinner,
+declaring he'll never charter a boat to me again; says the Chehalis
+lost two thousand dollars on the voyage."  And Cappy went off into a
+gale of laughter, and handed Skinner the letter to read.
+
+For the benefit of the reader, who may desire a closer insight into
+Cappy's Machiavellian nature, be it known that a sinker is a heavy,
+close-grained clear redwood butt-log, which, if cut in the spring,
+when the tree is alive with sap, is so heavy it will not float in the
+millpond; hence the term sinker.  A vessel laden with lumber sawed
+from sinkers, therefore, will carry just fifty per cent. of her
+customary cargo; and unless the freight rate be extremely high, she
+cannot make money.
+
+"Do you know, Skinner," Cappy announced presently, "I think you'd
+better hunt up a steady job for me!  Dadding it, boy, I never knew
+there was so much fun in business until I had practically retired!
+Really, Skinner, I must take more interest in my affairs."
+
+"Here's something to sharpen your teeth on, Mr. Ricks," the general
+manager replied, and presented the cablegram he had been holding for
+five minutes.
+
+Cappy took it and read, thereby becoming aware for the first time,
+that he had in his employ an individual by the name of Matthew
+Peasley.
+
+                            Cape Town, February 15, --.
+
+  Bluestar, San Francisco:
+
+  Captain knifed Kru boy argument boat fare.  Instruct consignees
+  honor my drafts as captain.
+
+                            Matthew Peasley, Mate.
+
+"The murdering black hound!" Cappy murmured in an awed voice.  "If he
+hasn't gone and killed the best skipper I ever had!  Poor Kendall!
+Why, Noah and I were good friends, Skinner.  Every time the Retriever
+touched in at her home port I always had Noah Kendall up to the house
+for dinner, and we went to the theatre together afterward.  Thank God!
+It isn't a week since his life insurance premium fell due and I had
+the cashier pay it."
+
+Cappy sat gazing dejectedly at the carpet.
+
+"Poor old Cap'n Noah!" he soliloquized aloud.  "Twenty-five years you
+sailed under the Blue Star, and in all that time there was never once
+when I had to jack up and tell you to 'tend to business.  And, Noah,
+you could make a suit of sails last longer than any man I ever knew;
+but you did have a hell of a temper."  And having delivered this
+touching eulogy on the late Captain Kendall, Cappy roused himself and
+faced Skinner.
+
+"I should say I have a job on my hands," he announced, "with the
+finest sailing ship in the fleet down in South Africa without a
+skipper!  Skinner, I'll tell you what you do, my boy: You dictate the
+nicest letter you know how to dictate to Noah's widow, up in Port
+Townsend.  Tell her how much we thought of Noah and extend our
+sympathy, and a check for his next three months' salary.  Put her on
+my private pension list, Skinner, and send her Cap'n Noah's salary
+every quarter-day as long as she lives.  Tell her we'll attend to the
+collection of the life insurance and will bring Noah's body home to
+Port Townsend at our own expense.  It's the least we can do, Skinner.
+He was the only skipper I ever had who did not, at one time or
+another, manage to embroil me in a lawsuit.  Who are our consignees at
+Cape Town?"
+
+"The Harlow & Benton Company, Limited."
+
+"Cable them for confirmation of the mate's message, and request them
+to have Cap'n Noah's body embalmed and shipped to Port Townsend,
+Washington, prepaid, deducting charges from our invoice."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MATT PEASLEY ASSUMES OFFICE
+
+
+The death of Captain Noah Kendall, while profoundly deplored by his
+next in command, first mate Matthew Peasley, had not been permitted by
+that brisk young man to interfere in the least with the task of
+getting the cargo out of the Retriever, for sailoring, like
+soldiering, is a profession in which sentiment is a secondary
+consideration.  Each day of demurrage to a ship like the Retriever,
+even at the prevailing low freight rate, meant a loss of at least a
+hundred dollars to the owners, and since navigating a ship safely and
+expeditiously is the least of a good skipper's duties, and since,
+further, Matt Peasley was determined to be a skipper in the not very
+distant future, he concluded to give his owners evidence of the fact
+that he was, in addition to being a navigator, also a first-class
+"hustler."  If the Retriever made a loss on that voyage he was
+resolved that no blame should attach to him.
+
+"Skipper's dead, Mike," he announced to Mr. Murphy, the second mate.
+"Policeman in a small boat alongside says the old man got into a row
+with the Kru boy that rowed him ashore and the black scoundrel
+skewered him.  I'm going ashore to look after his body and order a tug
+to kick us into our berth.  I guess the old man didn't get time to
+attend to the business that brought him ashore, poor fellow."
+
+"Very well, Sir," Mr. Murphy replied, and murmured some commonplace
+expression of regret.  He was not particularly shocked for he had lost
+shipmates in a hurry before now.
+
+Matt Peasley proceeded to the beach, attended to the necessary details
+incident to the skipper's untimely removal, was informed by the Harlow
+& Benton Company, Limited, of the location of the berth he was to
+discharge, ordered a tug for that afternoon, went to the cable office,
+registered his cable address, sent a cablegram to the owners and
+returned to the ship.
+
+"Well, Mike," he announced to the second mate, "I guess I'm the
+skipper; following the same line of deduction, I guess you're the
+chief mate, so I'll move my dunnage into the old man's cabin and you
+move into mine.  I'll pick up a second mate in Cape Town before we
+leave."
+
+Mr. Murphy eyed his youthful superior with mild curiosity, not
+untempered with amusement.  "Thank you for the promotion, Captain
+Matt," he replied.  "However, if you'll excuse my apparent impudence
+on the grounds that I'm about fifteen years older than you and have
+been longer in the Blue Star employ, I'd like to make a suggestion."
+
+"Fire away, Mike."
+
+Mr. Murphy hitched his belt, walked to the rail, spat tobacco juice
+from between his fingers and came back. "You're the youngest chief
+mate I've ever seen, and this is your first berth in that capacity,"
+he began.  "Suppose you hang on to it and don't be so infernally
+generous."
+
+"But you have a first mate's license, haven't you?"
+
+"Certainly.  But--"
+
+"No ifs or buts, Mike.  The skipper's dead; I was first mate;
+consequently I take command of the ship, and by virtue of my authority
+I appoint you first mate.  That goes.  You'll do one of two things,
+Mike.  You'll be first mate or get out of the ship."
+
+Michael J. Murphy grinned.  "You mean that?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"If you stick by that determination you'll find yourself on the beach
+in Cape Town, unless you conclude to take my recently vacated berth as
+second mate.  And I'd hate like the devil to have you do that.
+There's neither sense nor profit for you in swapping jobs with me."
+
+"But I tell you I'm going to be skipper."
+
+"I know--until old Cappy Ricks sends down a relief captain.  If you
+promote me now, the relief captain may conclude to retain me as first
+mate and then you'd have to take my job or quit the ship; and of
+course I wouldn't care to have that happen.  I'd have to quit the
+ship, too.  I wouldn't care to do that.  I've made up my mind to sail
+under the Blue Star flag for the rest of my natural life and I'd hate
+to have to change my mind."
+
+"I've made up my mind to the same thing, Mike, and I know I'm not
+going to change my mind."
+
+"Well, then, Matt, you stick in your first mate's berth and I'll be
+satisfied with my second mate's berth."
+
+"I suppose you'll say next that the relief skipper will be happy in
+poor old Captain Noah's berth, eh?" Matt interrupted.  He grinned at
+Mr. Murphy.
+
+"Mike, listen to me.  There isn't going to be any relief skipper.
+You're going back to Hoquiam, Grays Harbor, Washington, U. S. A., as
+chief kicker of the barkentine Retriever, and you're going to take
+orders from me all the way.  In fact, you might as well begin right
+now.  Take your duds and move into my cabin."
+
+"Matt," Mr. Murphy pleaded earnestly, "you don't know Cappy Ricks, do
+you?"
+
+"No, but I'll get acquainted with him in due course.  Don't let that
+worry you Mike."
+
+"All right, I won't.  But what does worry me is the fact that Cappy
+Ricks doesn't know you.
+
+"Does he know you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you know him?"
+
+"Yes, by proxy.  I've heard a lot about him, and that's why I'm in his
+employ and resolved to stay there.  If a man sails under the Blue Star
+flag long enough and behaves himself and displays a little human
+intelligence from time to time sooner or later he gets his chance.
+Cappy Ricks does all the hiring and firing for the fleet, and whenever
+he has a good job to fill, he never goes outside his own employ to
+fill it.  He always promotes the deserving.  You cabled him, of
+course, that Captain Kendall has been killed."
+
+"Yes, I did.  And I cabled him also to cable me authority to draw
+drafts, as skipper, in order to disburse the vessel."
+
+"Just like a kid!  Just like a kid!" Mr. Murphy groaned.  "That
+finishes you, Matt.  Cappy'll think you're fresh and you'll be ten
+years proving to him you are not."
+
+"It proves I'm on the job," Matt protested doggedly.
+
+"No matter, Matt.  Cappy Ricks will go over the list of his skippers
+due for promotion into a larger ship and more pay, and right away
+he'll start Captain Noah's successor for Cape Town to bring the ship
+home."
+
+"If he does, Mike, he's crazy."
+
+"Oh, he's crazy enough, Matt, like a fox--so blamed crazy he will not
+consider handing over this Retriever to an untried and unknown man who
+has been in his employ for less than a voyage.  Why, I wouldn't
+myself."
+
+"Maybe you think he'll hand her over to you?" Matt asked, with the
+suspicion and impetuosity of youth.
+
+"Boy," said Mr. Murphy patiently, "you're getting into deep water
+close to the shore.  Starboard your helm and put her on the other
+tack.  If he gives her to me--which he will not--I'll take her.  I've
+been three years in his employ.  I'm capable--"
+
+"Mike," Matt interrupted.  "I like you fine, but I want to tell you
+that if Cappy Ricks cabled you to take charge, I wouldn't let you.
+I'm next in command, and it's only etiquette that I should have my
+chance."
+
+"Then," Mr. Murphy murmured sententiously, "there'd be a fight with
+skin gloves and I'm afraid you'd get licked, son.  I wasted a good
+many years in the navy, Matt, and there I learned two things--how to
+obey and how to fight with my fists.  I was the champion amateur
+light-heavy-weight of the Atlantic fleet, and every once in a while
+something happens to prove to me that I'm far from being a slouch even
+at this late date."
+
+"No offense, Mike.  We're crossing our bridges before we come to them,
+and besides, I didn't intend to be offensive."
+
+"I understand.  Our conversation was entirely academic," Murphy
+admitted graciously.
+
+"You said you learned to obey in the navy," Matt suggested.  "What's
+the matter with obeying my last order?"
+
+"All right, Matt.  I'll obey.  But remember, I have given you fair
+warning.  If I move into your cabin to-day, I'll not move out when the
+relief skipper comes."
+
+"I'll take a chance," said Matt Peasley.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WORDY WAR AT A DOLLAR A WORD
+
+
+While the capable Mr. Skinner was preparing the reply to Matt
+Peasley's cablegram, and dictating for Cappy Ricks' signature a letter
+to Noah Kendall's widow, Cappy was busy at the telephone.  First he
+retailed the news to the Merchants' Exchange, to be bulletined on the
+blackboard and read by Captain Noah's friends; next he called up the
+secretary of the American Shipmasters' Association, of which the
+deceased had been a member, and lastly he communicated the sad tidings
+to the water-front reporters of all the daily papers.  This detail
+attended to, Cappy's active mind returned to more practical and
+profitable affairs, and he took up Matt Peasley's cablegram.  He was
+deep in a study of it when Mr. Skinner entered with the letter to Mrs.
+Kendall.
+
+"'Captain knifed, killed, Kru boy argument boat fare,'" Cappy read
+aloud.  "Skinner, my dear boy, what is the cable rate per word to Cape
+Town?"
+
+"Ninety-eight cents per word," replied Mr. Skinner, who had just
+looked it up.
+
+"We will if you please, Skinner, confine ourselves to round numbers.
+There is such a thing as being too exact.  Call it a dollar.  Figuring
+on that basis, I see this garrulous mate has squandered five dollars
+of our money to no purpose--yes, by jingo, more than that.  He might
+have used the code book!  Hum-m-m!  Ahem! Harump-h-h-h!  Skinner, this
+fellow will not do.  He is too windy.  Skinner, he tells the story in
+eight words, and forgets to use his code book.  Give me a skipper,
+Skinner, my boy, who always has his owner's interest at heart and
+displays a commendable discretion in limiting the depredations
+practiced by the cable company.  For instance, the man Peasley might
+have omitted the word knifed; also the explanatory words, argument
+boat fare, and the word mate.  Though regretting Noah's demise most
+keenly, as business men we are not cable-gramically interested in the
+means employed to accomplish his removal.  Neither do the causes
+leading up to the tragedy interest us.  The man Peasley should merely
+have said "Captain murdered."  Also, he might have trusted to us to
+realize that when the captain dies the first mate takes charge.  He
+need not have identified himself--the infernal chatter-box!"
+
+Cappy read the next sentence.  "Instruct consignees honor my drafts as
+captain."
+
+"H'm!  Harum-ph!  He might have said 'please,' Skinner!  Sounds
+devilishly like an order, the way he puts it.  Though he is
+temporarily in command I challenge his right to handle our money until
+I know more about him.  Harum-ph!  Reading between the lines, Skinner,
+I see he says: 'If you send a skipper to Cape Town to bring the
+Retriever home while I'm on the job, you're crazy.'  Look over the
+vouchers in Cap'n Noah's last report and let us ascertain how long
+this forceful mate has been in our employ."
+
+Now, the ordinary form of receipt to which a seaman puts his signature
+when signing clear bears upon its reverse side a series of blank
+spaces, which the captain must fill in.  These blanks provide for
+mention of the date of signing on, date of discharge, station held on
+vessel and remarks.  On none of the vouchers of the Retriever's last
+voyage, however, did the name of Matthew Peasley appear.
+
+"Must have shipped in San Francisco just before the vessel sailed for
+her loading port," Cappy announced.  "Send in a boy."
+
+One of Cappy's young men was summoned.
+
+"Son," said Cappy, "you run down, like a good boy, to the office of
+the Deputy United States Shipping Commissioner and tell him Mr. Ricks
+would like to see the duplicate copy of the crew list of the
+barkentine Retriever."
+
+When an American vessel clears for a foreign port the law required
+that her crew shall be signed on before a Deputy United States
+Shipping Commissioner, who furnishes a certified copy of the crew list
+to the captain and retains a duplicate for his own files.
+
+The Blue Star youth returned presently with his duplicate list, on
+consulting which, to his unspeakable amazement, Cappy Ricks discovered
+that Matthew Peasley had shipped aboard the Retriever as an able
+seaman, and that the first mate was one William Olson--which goes to
+prove that in the heat of passion a skipper will often discharge a
+mate on the eve of sailing for a foreign port and forget to tell the
+Deputy Shipping Commissioner anything about it.
+
+"Remarkable," Cappy declared.  "Ree-markable!"
+
+"Dirty work here," Mr. Skinner announced.  "Captain dead and a common
+A.B. cabling us for authority to draw drafts as captain, while posing
+as first mate.  Nigger in the woodpile somewhere, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"I'll smoke him out in five minutes, Skinner.  Ring up the local
+inspectors and inquire if, by any chance, they have ever issued a
+captain's license to one Matthew Peasley."
+
+Skinner obeyed. After a brief wait he was informed that the said
+Peasley had an unlimited license as first mate of sail, and was
+entitled to act as second mate of steam vessels up to five hundred
+tons net register.
+
+"Nothing doing!" Cappy piped.  "Skinner, when a mate with an unlimited
+license ships before the mast, THERE'S A REASON!"
+
+"Drunkard!" Mr. Skinner suggested without an instant's hesitation.
+
+"Eggs-actly, Skinner.  Good seaman, I daresay, but worthless and
+unreliable in an executive capacity, and I can't trust a ripping fine
+barkentine like the Retriever with that kind of man.  I suppose he
+feels the hankering for a spree coming on right now.  Skinner, if we
+gave the man Peasley permission to draw drafts he'd paint Cape Town
+red.  I feel it in my bones."
+
+"So do I, sir."
+
+"What vessels have we in port at this moment, Skinner?"
+
+"McBride is discharging the Nokomis at Oakland Long Wharf."
+
+"The ideal man."  Cappy smote his desk.  "I've been wanting to promote
+Mac into a larger vessel and pay him twenty-five dollars a month more
+for the past two years.  He's too good for a little hooker like the
+Nokomis, and he's got a steady-going Norwegian mate that's been with
+him in the Nokomis for three years.  Time to take care of that mate.
+Skinner, I have an idea.  See that it is carried through.  McBride's
+mate shall buy out Mac's interest in the Nokomis.  If he hasn't the
+money, tell him I'll lend it to him, secured by the insurance,
+provided he and McBride can come to terms.  See that they do.  Tell
+Mac he's to have the Retriever, and I'll arrange to get Cap'n Noah's
+interest for him from the estate at a fair figure.  Give him expense
+money and his credentials and tell him to start for Cape Town tomorrow
+night; and cable the man Peasley to retain charge of the vessel at
+captain's pay until McBride arrives to relieve him."
+
+Mr. Skinner retired to his office and got down his code book.  The
+general manager knew what he desired to say and hoped he might find
+something in the code book to help him say it at cut rates, but
+despairing after a diligent search he finally evolved and dispatched
+this cablegram to Matt Peasley, addressing it to the cable address of
+the Retriever.
+
+                              San Francisco, Feb. 16th, 19--.
+
+  Rickstar,
+    Cape Town.
+
+  Peasley, your meager maritime experience renders prohibitive
+  compliance request.  Retain charge master's pay pending arrival
+  successor.
+
+                                                Bluestar.
+
+Having dispatched his message to Matt Peasley, Mr. Skinner, as he
+thought, had dismissed Peasley from his thoughts forever.  It would
+appear, however, that in this particular the general manager was
+counting Mother Carey s chickens before they were hatched.  He little
+suspected, in his desire to be fair, even at considerable expense, to
+inform Matt Peasley just why the Blue Star Navigation Company couldn't
+possibly hand over its fine barkentine to a stranger, that he had only
+reopened the controversy; that his unfortunate reference to "meager
+maritime experience" had flicked Matt Peasley on a raw spot and been
+provocative of this reply, received the same day:
+
+                              Cape Town, Feb. 16, 19--.
+
+  Bluestar,
+    San Francisco.
+
+  Skipper dying sea foreign port unwritten maritime law
+  stipulates mate succeeds.  Yankee can sail anything afloat.
+  This my chance.  Grant it or insure successor's life.  Will
+  throw him overboard on arrival.
+
+                                                Peasley.
+
+Mr. Skinner promptly carried this defi to Cappy Ricks.
+
+"He's a sea-lawyer," Cappy piped angrily.  "The scoundrel!  The
+un-mi-ti-ga-ted--scoundrel!  Cable him instantly, Skinner, that if he
+spends another cent of our money in unnecessary cablegrams I'll fire
+him."  He snapped his fingers. "Attend to it, Skinner, attend to it."
+
+Mr. Skinner attended to it, and the following morning he found this
+reply on his desk when he came down to work:
+
+                              Cape Town, Feb. 17, 19--.
+
+  Bluestar,
+    San Francisco.
+
+  Holler when you're hit.  Paid for it myself.  Am I to bring
+  Retriever home?
+
+                                                Peasley.
+
+"I dare say the fellow did," Mr. Skinner informed Cappy.  "He has four
+months' wages coming to him at sixty dollars a month--and if he
+didn't, why, I'll instruct McBride to deduct the cable charges from
+his wages when he pays him off."
+
+"I think your reference to his meager maritime experience annoyed him,
+Skinner," Cappy suggested thoughtfully.  "It may be that he is a most
+excellent sailor.  At least, he spends his money like one."
+
+Cappy had no further comment to make, and the reply to this impudent
+communication was accordingly left to Mr. Skinner, who cabled:
+
+                              San Francisco, Feb. 17th, 19--.
+
+  Rickstar,
+    Cape Town.
+
+  No!
+
+                                                Bluestar.
+
+"I think that will settle the upstart," Mr. Skinner declared
+confidently as he rang for a messenger boy.
+
+It did not. Four hours later he received this:
+
+                              Cape Town, Feb. 17, 19--.
+
+  Bluestar,
+    San Francisco.
+
+  Why?
+
+                                                Peasley.
+
+Now it was a custom of Mr. Skinner's, when a subordinate laid claim to
+an inalienable right which the general manager was not willing to
+concede, to regard with very grave suspicion that subordinate's
+loyalty to the company.  If the subordinate protested Mr. Skinner
+would warn him, kindly, quietly, but none the less forcefully; and if
+he persisted Mr. Skinner would dispense with the services of that
+subordinate so fast the offender, nine times out of ten, would be left
+standing in a sort of fog and blinking at the suddenness with which
+the metaphorical can had, metaphorically speaking, been tied to his
+caudal appendage.  Every large business office has its Skinner--a
+queer combination of decency, honesty, brains and brutality, a
+worshiper at the shrine of Mammon in the temple of the great god
+Business, a reactionary Republican, treasurer of his church and
+eventually a total loss from diabetes, brought on by lack of exercise
+and worry over trifles.
+
+However, to return to our particular Mr. Skinner and Matt Peasley, the
+rebellious.  In all justice to Skinner it must be admitted that his
+first impulse with reference to Matt Peasley was eminently fair.  He
+really desired to convey to this persistent person an intimation to
+the effect that the latter was, colloquially speaking, monkeying with
+the buzz-saw and in imminent danger of having his head lopped off; and
+he would have given it, too, provided the delivery of the ultimatum
+should not have cost the Blue Star Navigation Company ninety-eight
+cents a word, including the address.  Consequently, Skinner, always
+efficient and realizing that McBride would doubtless be enabled to
+pick up another mate in Cape Town, or in a pinch, could dispense with
+a first mate altogether, made answer to Matt Peasley as follows:
+
+                              San Francisco, Feb. 17th, 19--.
+
+  Rickstar,
+    Cape Town.
+
+  Peasley, you are hereby discharged.  Turn over command second
+  mate, call consignees your wages immediately.
+
+                                                Bluestar.
+
+Having dispatched this cablegram and ended it all, as it were, Mr.
+Skinner next cast his cold gray glance adown the duplicate crew list
+borrowed from the deputy shipping commissioner, and discovered that
+the second mate shipped at San Francisco was one Christian Swenson.
+
+"I do hope he's not a drinking man," Skinner sighed.  "The Retriever
+is quite a responsibility to entrust to a man we have never seen or
+heard of before, but the man Swenson can scarcely be as vicious and
+insubordinate as this fellow Peasley, and under the circumstances
+we'll have to run the risk."
+
+And having wotted the which, Mr. Skinner cabled Christian Swenson to
+take charge of the Retriever, at master's wages, until the arrival of
+his successor.  Next he cabled The Harlow and Benton Company, Limited,
+requesting them to pay off Matt Peasley and, if necessary, invoke the
+authorities to remove him from the vessel.
+
+"That fellow is a tough one to handle," he remarked to Cappy Ricks, to
+whom he showed all the cablegrams, "but I guess this will about cut
+off his wind."
+
+"A sea lawyer is the curse of the Seven Seas!" Cappy declared
+waspishly.  He was very bitter against Matt Peasley, whom he now
+regarded as an ally of the piratical cable company.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CAPPY RICKS MAKES BAD MEDICINE
+
+
+That afternoon Mr. Skinner herded Captain McBride of the Nokomis and
+his Norwegian mate into Cappy Ricks' office.  Cappy brought them to
+terms very promptly, and the captain started for New York on the
+Overland the same night.  From New York he was to take passage to
+Liverpool, thence via the A. D. line to Cape Town.  Cappy almost had a
+bloody sweat when he reflected on the expense for provisions and wages
+for the crew during the weeks of idleness while McBride was on the way
+to join the Retriever.  Both he and Mr. Skinner had decided that
+nothing could be gained by informing McBride, who was a little,
+mild-mannered gentleman with gold eyeglasses, of the potential ducking
+that awaited him at the hands of Matt Peasley; for just before McBride
+said good-bye and started for the train Cappy and Mr. Skinner
+discovered that their apple cart again had been upset.  The following
+cablegram received from Matt Peasley knocked into a cocked hat all
+their high hopes of ridding themselves of the incubus.
+
+                              Cape Town, Feb. 17, 19--.
+
+  Bluestar,
+    San Francisco.
+
+  Swenson fired before leaving San Francisco.  Second mate Murphy
+  declines take your orders, claiming me superior officer; I
+  decline also, claiming captain en route my superior officer.
+  Owner can fire captain but only captain can fire or disrate
+  ship's officers.  Besides I shipped for the round trip.
+
+                                                Peasley.
+
+"Well," said Cappy, "what do you know about that?  He clings to us
+like a barnacle or a poor relation--and the worst of it is the damned
+sea lawyer is absolutely right.  We have no authority to fire him,
+Skinner.  Just think of a government that will permit such a
+ridiculous state of affairs as that to exist!  Think of it, Skinner!
+We hire the man Peasley but we can't fire him--and in the meantime
+he'll roost in Cap'n Noah's cabin and run up bills on us and consume
+our groceries and draw master's pay until McBride arrives and
+discharges him."
+
+For geographical and financial reasons Cappy Ricks was barred from
+quarreling with Matt Peasley.  However, he was as cross as a setting
+hen and just naturally had to vent his displeasure on somebody, and as
+he paid Mr. Skinner a very large salary to be his general manager, he
+figured he could afford to quarrel with Skinner.  So he said:
+
+"Well, Skinner, if you hadn't butted in on the shipping end of the
+business the man Peasley would not have been given this opening to
+swat us.  It's nuts for a sailor any time he can trip up a landsman,
+and particularly his owners--"
+
+"You 0. K.'d the cablegrams, Mr. Ricks," Skinner reminded him coldly.
+
+"Don't talk back to me!" Cappy piped.  "Not another peep out of you,
+sir!  Not another word of discussion about this matter under any
+circumstances!  I don't want to talk about it further--understand?
+It's driving me insane.  Now, then, Skinner, tell me: If the man
+Peasley should decline to recognize McBride's authority, what course
+would you advise pursuing?"
+
+"I do not think he will be that arbitrary, Mr. Ricks.  In the first
+place--"
+
+"Skinner, please do not argue with me.  The man Peasley would do
+anything--"
+
+"Well, in that event, McBride can call in the civil authorities of
+Cape Town, to remove Peasley by force from the ship."
+
+"Skinner, you'll drive me to drink!  I ask you, has a British official
+any authority over an American vessel lying in the roadstead?  Will a
+foreign official dare to set foot on an American deck when an American
+skipper orders him not to do so?"
+
+"I am not a sea lawyer," Mr. Skinner retorted, "I do not know."
+
+"The Retriever will have discharged her cargo weeks before McBride
+arrives.  Then suppose Peasley takes a notion to warp his vessel
+outside the three-mile limit.  What authority has McBride got then?"
+
+"I repeat, I am not a sea lawyer, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Don't equivocate with me, Skinner!  Let's argue this question calmly,
+coolly and deliberately.  Don't lose your temper.  Now then.  Peasley
+said he'd throw his successor overboard, didn't he?"
+
+"Oh, merely a threat, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Skinner, you're a fine, wise manager!  A threat, eh?" Cappy
+laughed--a short, scornful laugh.  "Huh!  Threat!  Joke!"
+
+"You do not think it is a threat?"
+
+"No, sir.  It's a promise.  McBride is a splendid little man and game
+to the core; but no good, game little man will ever stay on a deck if
+a good, game big man takes a notion to throw him overboard, and the
+man Peasley is both big and game, otherwise he would not defy us.
+Why, Skinner, that fellow wouldn't pause at anything.  Hasn't he spent
+over a hundred dollars arguing with us by cable?  Why, he's a
+desperate character!  Also, he would not threaten to throw his
+successor overboard if he didn't know that he was fully capable of so
+doing.  Paste that in your hat, Skinner.  It isn't done."  Skinner
+inclined his head respectfully.  Cappy continued: "What I should have
+done was to have sent a good, game, big man--"
+
+He paused, and his glance met Skinner's wonderingly as a bright idea
+leaped into his cunning brain and crystallized into definite purpose.
+He sprang up, waved his skinny old arms, and kicked the waste-basket
+into a corner of the room.
+
+"I have it, Skinner!  I've solved the problem.  Go back and 'tend to
+your lumber business and leave the man Peasley to me.  I'll tan that
+fellow's hide and hang it on my fence, just as sure as George
+Washington crossed the Delaware River."
+
+Mr. Skinner, glad to be excused, promptly made his escape.  When Cappy
+Ricks stripped for action, Mr. Skinner knew from long experience that
+there was going to be a fight or a foot race; that whenever the old
+gentleman set out to confound an enemy, the inevitable result was
+wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth, in which doleful form of
+exercise Cappy Ricks had never been known to participate.
+
+"Send in a boy!" Cappy ordered as the general manager withdrew.
+
+The boy appeared.  "Sonny," said Cappy Ricks, "do you know All Hands
+And Feet?"  The boy nodded and Cappy continued: "Well, you go down on
+the Embarcadero, like a good boy, and cruise from Folsom Street to
+Broadway Wharf Number Two until you find All Hands and Feet.  Look in
+front of cigar stands and in the shipchandlery stores; and if you
+don't find him in those places run over to the assembly rooms of
+Harbor Fifteen, Masters' and Pilots' Association, and see if he's
+there, playing checkers.  When you find him tell him Mr. Ricks wants
+to see him at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ALL HANDS AND FEET TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+Captain Ole Peterson was known to the coastwise trade as All Hands And
+Feet.  He was a giant Swede whose feet resembled twin scow models and
+whose clenched fists, properly smoked and cured, might have passed
+anywhere for picnic hams.  He was intelligent, competent and
+belligerent, with a broad face, slightly dished and plentifully
+scarred, while his wide flat nose had been stove in and shifted hard
+a-starboard.  Cappy Ricks liked him, respected his ability and found
+him amusing as one finds an educated bear amusing.  He had a
+reputation for being the undefeated rough and tumble champion of
+Sweden and the United States.
+
+"You ban vant to see me, sir?" he rumbled as, hat in hand, he stood
+beside Cappy Ricks' desk half an hour later.  Compared with the huge
+Swede, Cappy looked like a watch charm.
+
+"Sit down, captain," Cappy replied amiably.  "I hear you're out of a
+job.  Why?"
+
+Briefly All Hands And Feet explained what Cappy already knew; that his
+last command, being old and rotten and over-loaded, had worked apart
+in a seaway and fallen to pieces under him.  The inspectors had held
+him blameless.
+
+"I have a job for you, Ole," Cappy announced.  "But there's a string
+attached to it."
+
+"Aye ban able to pull strings, sir," Ole reminded him.
+
+Cappy smiled, and outlined to the Swede the conditions surrounding the
+barkentine Retriever.  "I'm going to give you command of the
+Retriever," he continued confidentially.  "You are to bring her home
+from Cape Town, and when you get back I'll have a staunch four-masted
+schooner waiting for you.  I was going to send McBride of the Nokomis
+on this job, but thought better of it, for the reason that Mac may not
+be physically equipped to perform the additional task I have in mind
+and I believe you are.  Peterson, if you want a steady job skippering
+for the Blue Star Navigation Company you've got to earn it, and to
+earn it you've got to give this fellow Peasley a good sound thrashing
+for the good of his immortal soul.  The very moment you step aboard
+the Retriever let him know you're the master."
+
+"Do you tank he ban villin' to fight?" Ole demanded.
+
+"Something tells me he will.  However, in case he doesn't, don't let
+that embarrass you.   Man-handle him until he does. Let me impress
+upon you, captain, the fact that I want the man Peasley summarily
+chastised for impudence and insubordination."
+
+"All right, sir," said Ole.  "Aye ban work him over."  To be asked to
+fight for a job was to this descendant of the Vikings the ne plus
+ultra of sportsmanship.  "Aye never ban licked yet," he added
+reminiscently.
+
+"When we cabled we were sending a man to relieve him," Cappy
+complained, "he replied, telling us to insure his successor's life,
+because he was going to throw him overboard the minute he arrived."
+
+All Hands And Feet swept away any lingering fears Cappy might chance
+to be entertaining.  "Aye ban weigh two hundret an' saxty pounds," he
+announced.
+
+"Which being the case," Cappy warned him, "should he succeed in
+throwing YOU overboard I should consider you unfit for a job in my
+employ." (The old fox had not the slightest idea such a contretemps
+was possible, but in order to play safe he considered it good policy
+to hearten Ole for the fray.)  "Should he defeat you, captain, I have
+no hesitancy in saying to you now that such a misfortune would have a
+most disastrous effect on your future in my employ.  You know me.
+When I order a job done, I want it done, and I want it done well.
+Understand!  I don't want you to maim or kill the man, but just give
+him a good sound--er--commercial thrashing; and after you've tamed him
+I want you to--"
+
+All Hands And Feet nodded his comprehension.
+
+"An'," he interrupted, "after aye ban slap him once or twice aye ban
+give good kick under de coattail an' fire dis fresh guy--eh?" he
+suggested.
+
+"Fire nothing!" shrilled Cappy.  "You follow instructions, Ole, or
+I'll fire you!  No, sir.  After you've thrashed him I want you to bend
+a rope round him amidships and souse him overside to bring him to!
+Remember, we fired him once and he would not be fired.  The damned sea
+lawyer quoted the salt-water code to us and said he'd shipped for the
+round trip; so we'll take him at his word.  He's your first mate,
+captain.  Bring him back to Grays Harbor with you; and then, if you
+feel so inclined, you may apply the tip of your number twenty-four sea
+boot where it will do the most good; in fact, I should prefer it.  But
+by all means see to it that he completes his contract with the
+barkentine Retriever."
+
+"Aye skoll see to it," Ole promised fervently.
+
+"I thank you, captain.  Come out in the general office now and I'll
+introduce you to the cashier, who will furnish you with expense money.
+Meantime, I'll have Skinner fill out a certificate of change of
+masters and have it registered at the custom-house.  Can't send you
+down there without your credentials, you know."
+
+All Hands And Feet mumbled his thanks; for, indeed, he was grateful
+for this chance to prove his metal.  Calm in the knowledge of his past
+performances, he took no thought of the personal issue with Matt
+Peasley, for never had he met a mate he could not thrash.  He followed
+Cappy out to the cashier's desk; and while the latter equipped All
+Hands And Feet for his journey to South Africa, and Mr. Skinner
+departed for the custom-house to have the certificate registered,
+Cappy wired McBride, aboard the Overland speeding east, instructing
+him to come back to San Francisco.
+
+When Skinner returned to the office he found Cappy clawing nervously
+at his whiskers.
+
+"The man Peasley has completely disrupted our organization," he
+complained bitterly.  "Here I go to work and promote McBride to the
+Retriever to make room for his mate in the Nokomis, and now I have to
+recall Mac and give the Retriever to All Hands And Feet until she gets
+back to Grays Harbor; in consequence of which Mac hasn't a thing to do
+for four months and draws full pay for doing it, and later I've got to
+provide a permanent place for All Hands And Feet!  Skinner, if this
+continues, I shall yet fill a pauper's grave." He was silent for
+several seconds; then: "By the way, Skinner, have you replied to that
+last cablegram from the man Peasley?"
+
+"No, sir.  I didn't think it required an answer."
+
+"You mean you didn't know what answer to give him," Cappy snarled.
+"Well, neither do I; but since the cuss has got us into the spending
+habit, I'm going to be reckless for once and send him a cable myself,
+just to let him know I'm calling his bluff."
+
+And, with that remark, Cappy squared round to his desk and wrote, in a
+trembling hand: "Special messenger big as horse carries reply your
+last cablegram."
+
+"There," he said, turning to his general manager; "send that to the
+man Peasley, and sign my name to it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MR. MURPHY ADVISES PREPAREDNESS
+
+
+Matt Peasley said nothing to Mr. Murphy when Cappy Ricks' cryptic
+cablegram was received.  Insofar as Matt was concerned, that cablegram
+closed the argument, for even had it seemed to demand a reply the
+master of the Retriever would not--nay could not, have answered, for
+the controversy had already ruined him financially.  So he went on
+briskly with his task of discharging the Retriever and when the A. D.
+liner pulled out for Liverpool with Captain Noah's body on board, he
+laid off work merely long enough to dip the ensign and run it to half
+mast again until the steamer was out of sight; then he furled the
+flag, stored it in the locker in Captain Noah's stateroom, into which
+he had now moved, and went on superintending the discharging.  When
+the vessel was empty he had a tug tow him out into the roadstead,
+where he cast anchor and set himself patiently to await the arrival of
+the special messenger "as big as a horse."
+
+Somehow Matt didn't relish that little dash of descriptive writing.
+In conjunction with the noun horse Cappy Ricks had employed the
+indefinite article a, and while a horse was a horse and Cappy might
+have had a Shetland pony in mind when he coined the simile,
+nevertheless, a still small voice whispered to Matt Peasley that at
+the time Cappy was really thinking of a Percheron.  The longer Matt
+chewed the cud of anticipation the more acute grew his regret that he
+had threatened to throw his successor overboard.  He traced a certain
+analogy between that threat and Cappy Ricks' simple declarative
+sentence, and finally he decided to take Mr. Murphy into his
+confidence.
+
+"Mike," he said, "did you ever hear any gossip to the effect that
+Cappy Ricks will swallow a bluff?"
+
+"No, I never have," Mr. Murphy replied.  "Why do you ask?  You been
+trying to bluff him, Matt?"
+
+"No, I really meant it when I said it, and if I'm crowded I'll make
+good, but somehow I wish I hadn't said it.  It wasn't dignified."
+
+"What did you say, Matt?"
+
+"I cabled the owners that if they sent a skipper down here to relieve
+me they had better insure his life, because I'd throw him overboard
+upon arrival."
+
+"Why, that's war talk," Mr. Murphy declared, highly scandalized.  "I
+don't think Cappy Ricks will stand for that.  I know blame well I
+wouldn't."
+
+"What would you do, Mike, if you stood in Cappy's shoes and I sent you
+that cablegram?"
+
+"Well," Mr. Murphy mused, "of course I'd be a little old man weighing
+about a hundred and thirty pounds ring-side, and I wouldn't be able to
+thrash you myself, but if it took my last dollar I'd send somebody
+down here to do the job for me.
+
+"Well, I guess that's just about what Cappy has done," Matt admitted,
+and handed his mate Cappy's cablegram.
+
+"Hah-hah!" Mr. Murphy commented.  "That threat got past the general
+manager, right up to headquarters.  Why, the old man signed this
+cablegram and they do say that when Cappy takes personal charge the
+fur begins to fly.  Matt, if I was a drinking man I'd offer to bet you
+a scuttle of grog it's a case of die dog, or eat the meat-axe.  Your
+bluff has been called, my son."
+
+"Then," Matt averred impudently, "the only thing for me to do is to
+call Cappy's."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why, give his messenger a good trouncing, of course.  You don't
+suppose I'm going to stand by and take a thrashing or let the other
+fellow heave me overboard, do you?  I should say not!"
+
+Mr. Murphy puffed at his pipe, in silence for several minutes, the
+while he pondered the situation.  Presently he arrived at a solution.
+
+"He wouldn't send a prize-fighter down here, just to lick you," he
+announced.  "The old man is the wildest spendthrift on earth when you
+get him started, but as a general rule his middle name is Tight Wad.
+He would select a combination of scrapper and skipper, and there are
+any number of such combinations on the beach of 'Frisco town.  I could
+name you a dozen off-hand, and any one of the dozen would make you
+mind your P's and Q's, big as you are.  Still, they all fight
+alike--rough and tumble, catch-as-catch-can.  They come wading in,
+swinging both arms and you could sail the Retriever through the
+openings they leave.  Know anything about boxing, Matt?"
+
+"Not a thing, Mike.  I've always had to climb the big fellows."
+
+"Then I'll teach you," Mr. Murphy announced with conviction.  "You're
+in fine shape now--as right as a fox and fit to tackle the finest, but
+there isn't any sense in getting mauled up when you don't have to.
+I'll go ashore and buy a set of six-ounce gloves, a set of two-ounce
+gloves and a punching bag.  For the next three weeks you won't have
+anything to do except prepare for the battle, and I can teach you a
+lot of good stuff in three weeks.  To be fore-warned is to be
+fore-armed, Matt, and if Cappy has sent a Holy Terror to clean you,
+give him a regular fight, even if he licks you."
+
+Matt Peasley nodded.  He entertained a profound respect for Mr.
+Murphy's judgment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE BATTLE OF TABLE BAY
+
+
+In due course Captain Ole Peterson arrived at Cape Town.  As the
+steamer which bore him slipped up Table Bay to her pier All Hands And
+Feet saw a big barkentine, flying the American flag, at anchor just
+inside the breakwater and rightly conjectured she was his future
+command.  Three hours ashore proved ample time to consummate all of
+the Retriever's neglected business.  He discovered that the man to
+whom he was to administer a good, sound, commercial thrashing, as per
+Cappy Ricks' instructions, had already purchased and gotten aboard
+stores and water for the voyage back to Grays Harbor, so All Hands And
+Feet drew some money from the consignees, to be deducted from the
+freight money, paid off all the vessel's bills, 0.K.'d the consignees'
+statement of account to be forwarded to the owners, received a
+ninety-day draft on London, in payment of the freight, mailed it to
+his owners, cleared his vessel, procured a reliable man to witness the
+formal transfer of authority from Matt Peasley to himself, engaged a
+launch and set out for the Retriever. All Hands And Feet had had ample
+time to plan his campaign, and he had planned it well.  Immediately
+upon setting foot on the deck of the Retriever he planned to attack;
+then, this duty accomplished, he would send his witness ashore, up
+hook and away.  The attack having taken place in British waters All
+Hands And Feet hoped Matt Peasley would have no redress in American
+waters; and if he took the complainant to sea with him the man Peasley
+would, of a certainty, have no legal redress in British waters!
+
+Mr. Murphy was the first to sight All Hands And Feet.  The worthy
+fellow had observed the arrival of the steamer and it had occurred to
+him that possibly Cappy Ricks' messenger might be aboard her.  He had
+been on the lookout for two hours, accordingly, and the instant he saw
+a launch coming toward the Retriever his suspicions were fully
+aroused.  He ran below and returned with the two ounce gloves and
+Captain Kendall's powerful marine glasses, which latter he leveled at
+the approaching launch, and while the new skipper was still a couple
+of cable lengths distant, Mr. Murphy recognized him.  Instantly he
+secured the two ounce gloves and ran aft to where Matt Peasley,
+dressed in slippers, duck trousers and undershirt, sat under an awning
+reading Sinful Peck.
+
+"Matt," he declared, "the special messenger will be aboard in about
+three shakes of a lamb's tail.  I recognize him."
+
+"Who is he?" Matt demanded coolly.
+
+"All Hands And Feet--and believe me, he's there!  He isn't a man,
+Matt, he's a bear--he's a devil, and if he ever gets his hands on you
+it's Kitty bar the door!  Get into the gloves, boy, get into the
+gloves.  You could smash that big Swede to your heart's content, but
+you wouldn't even stagger him with the first few punches.  You'd just
+break your hands on him before you could knock him out and then he'd
+walk over you. Into the gloves, Matt, and save your knuckles."
+
+"All right, Mike.  Don't be in such a hurry.  Call a couple of hands
+and let down the companion ladder so the special messenger can bring
+his dunnage aboard.  I'll fight him after I've finished this
+chapter--that is, if he insists on being accommodated."
+
+"He'll insist," Mr. Murphy declared.  "He likes it, and the reason he
+likes it is because he does it well, and that's the reason he's here.
+He won't waste any ceremony on you, Matt.  He's always up and doing."
+
+Matt finished his chapter of Sinful Peck just as All Hands And Feet,
+followed by a Cape Town gentleman and two Kru boys, bearing
+respectively a brown canvas telescope basket and a sea chest, bore
+down upon him, convoyed by Mr. Murphy.
+
+"A big Swede skipper," Matt Peasley soliloquized, as he eyed the
+stranger with alert interest.  "Thunder, but he's big.  He's the
+biggest thing I ever saw walking on two legs, with the exception of a
+trick elephant."  He rose, put down his book and advanced to greet his
+visitors.  While All Hands And Feet was still fully thirty feet from
+him he bawled aloud:
+
+"You ban Mr. Peasley?"
+
+"Captain Peasley," young Matt corrected him.  "Since the death of
+Captain Kendall I have been in charge of the vessel; hence, for the
+present, I am known as Captain Peasley.  What can I do for you,
+gentlemen?"
+
+All Hands And Feet glanced appraisingly at Matt Peasley and did him
+the honor to remove his coat and vest.
+
+"Yes; it's pretty hot down in these latitudes," Matt remarked, by way
+of being pleasant and making conversation.
+
+All Hands And Feet removed an envelope from his coat pocket and handed
+it to Matt; and while the latter perused it the big Swede strode to
+the scuttle butt and helped himself to a drink of water.  Matt opened
+the envelope and read this communication from Cappy Ricks:
+
+                                    San Francisco, California.
+                                      February 20, 19--.
+
+  Mr. Matthew Peasley,
+    Chief Mate Barkentine Retriever,
+      Cape Town, South Africa.
+
+  My Dear Mr. Peasley:
+
+  Cast your eye along the lines of the bearer of this note, Captain
+  Ole Peterson, who comes to Cape Town to take command of the
+  Retriever.  Within five minutes he will, acting under
+  instructions from me and without the slightest personal animus
+  toward yourself, proceed to administer to you the beating of a
+  lifetime.  By the time he gets through wiping the deck with you
+  perhaps you will realize the necessity, in the future, of obeying
+  orders from your owners.
+
+  In your cablegram received to-day, you take occasion to remind us
+  that no manager or owner has authority to disrate a ship's
+  officer.  This is quite true.  Such authority is vested only in
+  the master of the ship.  You need have no fear for your job,
+  however.  We believe you to be a clever first mate, otherwise
+  Captain Kendall would not have dug you up out of the forecastle;
+  and believing this, naturally we dislike the thought of disrating
+  you.  We have, therefore, instructed Captain Peterson to retain
+  you in your berth as first mate.
+
+  However, in view of the fact that we have informed him of your
+  amiable intentions of throwing him overboard, he will first
+  inculcate in you that spirit of respect to your superiors which
+  you so manifestly lack.  He will then dip you into the drink, to
+  bring you to, and after that you will kindly go forward and break
+  out the anchor.  You signed for the round trip and you're going
+  to complete your contract.  Remember that.
+
+                                    Cordially and sincerely yours,
+                                      Blue Star Navigation Company,
+                                        By Alden P. Ricks,
+                                          President.
+
+Matt Peasley read this extraordinary communication twice, then folded
+it and calmly placed it in his pocket.
+
+"May I inquire, sir," he said, facing the gentleman who had
+accompanied All Hands And Feet aboard the Retriever, "who you are and
+the nature of your business?"
+
+"I am the American consul, Mr. Peasley, and I am here at the
+invitation of Captain Peterson, the master of this ship, to witness
+the formal transfer of authority from you to him.  I was given to
+understand by Captain Peterson that you might offer some slight
+objection to this arrangement."
+
+"Slight objection!" Matt Peasley replied with a rising inflection, and
+grinned maliciously.
+
+The consul had his Yankee sense of humor with him and chuckled as Matt
+lifted his big body on his toes and stretched both arms lazily.  Then
+Matthew Peasley turned toward All Hands And Feet.
+
+"I have a letter from the owners of the Retriever," he said
+respectfully, "which leads me to presume that you are to supersede me
+in command of the vessel."  All Hands And Feet nodded.  "Which being
+the case," Matt Peasley continued, "as a mere matter of formality, you
+will of course present your credentials as master."
+
+"Sure!" Ole replied pleasantly, and sidled toward Matt Peasley with
+outstretched arms.  Could Cappy Ricks have seen his skipper then, he
+would have reminded the Old Man more than ever of a bear.
+
+Matt Peasley needed no blueprint of the big Swede's plans.  All Hands
+And Feet, depending on his sheer horse power and superior weight,
+always fought in mass formation, as it were.  His modus operandi was
+to embrace his enemy in those terrible arms, squeeze the breath out of
+him with one bearlike hug, then lay him on the deck, straddle him, and
+pummel him into insensibility at his leisure.  Matt gave ground
+rapidly and held up a warning hand.
+
+"One moment, my friend," he requested.  "Before you get familiar on
+brief acquaintance, don't you think you had better present your
+credentials?"
+
+All Hands And Feet shook his two great fists and grinned
+good-naturedly.
+
+"How dese ban suit you for credentials?" he queried.
+
+"Fine," Matt Peasley answered; "only, before you present them, our
+first duty is to the ship.  I take it that you have cleared the vessel
+and that after trimming me you intend to put to sea."
+
+"You ban guess it," the Swede rumbled.  "Put up de dooks.  Anyhow, I
+ban't have to fight little feller.  Dat ban one comfort."
+
+"You cleared the ship, eh?  Well, Swede, I'm glad to hear that.  I
+should have cleared her myself and sailed long ago if I had only had a
+skipper's ticket; but these British custom-house officials are great
+sticklers for red tape and they wouldn't clear me.  And, of course, a
+man can't sail without his papers.  When he does they send a gunboat
+after him.  However," he added brightly "the ship is cleared and the
+skipper--so I am unofficially informed--is aboard.  By the way, Swede,
+I left a lot of 0.K.'d bills for stores and provision up at the office
+of the Harlow & Benton Company, Limited.  Did you square up for them?"
+
+"Yah; everything ban shipshape," All Hands And Feet assured him.
+
+"And you insist on presenting your credentials in bunches of fives,
+eh?"
+
+All Hands And Feet nodded and once more commenced sidling toward Matt
+Peasley, who backed away again, meantime addressing himself to the
+United States consul:
+
+"You heard what he said, Mr. Consul.  He may be my superior officer,
+but I have not been informed of that fact officially; and meantime, so
+far as I am concerned, he is merely a fine, big squarehead who has
+climbed aboard my ship uninvited and attacked me.  Did you ever see a
+sea bully licked, Mr. Consul?"
+
+"I have never had that pleasure, Mr. Peasley."
+
+All the time Matt Peasley was circling around the deck, with All Hands
+And Feet sidling after him.
+
+"Then you've got something coming, sir," Matt replied.  "Help yourself
+to a reserved seat on the rail and watch the joyous procedure.  Mr.
+Murphy?"
+
+"Here, sir," Mr. Murphy replied promptly.
+
+"I'm going to thrash the big fellow, Mr. Murphy.  Stand by to see fair
+play and keep the crew off him.  I observe you have equipped yourself
+with a belaying-pin.  Thank you, Mr. Murphy.  You anticipate the
+situation."
+
+He turned to All Hands And Feet, who was still crowding him as they
+circled the deck.  "Stop where you are, my friend; otherwise, Mr.
+Murphy will crack you on the head with the belaying-pin."
+
+All Hands And Feet grinned patronizingly and paused.
+
+"Vell?" he queried.
+
+"On my ship," Matt continued, "all fights are pulled off under my
+rules. Kicking, choking, biting, gouging and deadly weapons are
+prohibited. If you get me down you can use your fists on me, but
+anything else will necessitate the interference of the referee with
+his trusty belaying-pin."
+
+"Vell?" All Hands And Feet queried again.  He was very eager for the
+fray.
+
+"We have procured a set of two-ounce gloves in anticipation of this
+physical culture exhibition," Matt replied.  "Unfortunately, however,
+I fear your hands will not fit them.  Would you care to try them on?"
+
+"Cut it oud!  Cut it oud!" the enemy rumbled contemptuously, and again
+commenced his advance.
+
+"One minute, then, my friend, until I put on--"
+
+"Fight mit your bare hands like a man!" the big Swede bellowed
+scathingly.
+
+"You forget.  I told you all fights on my ship are pulled off under my
+rules.  I always fight with two-ounce gloves."
+
+"All righd.  Suit yourself."  All Hands And Feet felt he could afford
+to give the enemy a trifle the better of the argument without the
+slightest prejudice to his own chances for success.
+
+Accordingly, Mr. Murphy skillfully bandaged Matt Peasley's hands, drew
+on the gloves and gently shoved his young champion toward the center
+of the deck.  "Let 'er go!" he announced.
+
+"Come Swede!  Present your credentials!" Matt taunted.  His long left
+flashed out and cuffed All Hands And Feet on the nose.
+
+It was a mere love-tap!  All Hands And Feet grinned pityingly, and
+with his left arm guarding his face, rushed.
+
+"Lower deck!" Mr. Murphy warned, and laughed as Matt planted left and
+right in the midriff and danced away from the Swede's swinging right.
+All Hands And Feet grunted--a most unwarriorlike grunt--and dropped
+both hands--whereupon a fog suddenly descended upon his vision.
+Faintly he made out a blur that was Matt Peasley; bellowing wrathfully
+he rushed. Matt gave ground and the Swede's vision cleared and he
+paused to consider the situation.
+
+"No rest for the wicked," Mr. Murphy declared.  "At him, boy, at him!"
+
+All Hands And Feet realized he faced a desperate situation, and as
+Matt stepped in he ducked and leaped upon his antagonist.
+
+"By yiminy," he yelled.  "I got you now!" and his great hands closed
+around Matt Peasley's neck.
+
+"Lower deck!" Mr. Murphy yelled shrilly, and a volley of short arm
+blows commenced to rattle on the big Swede's stomach.  For at least
+seven seconds Matt worked 1ike a pneumatic riveter; then--
+
+"Swing your partner for the grand right and left," Mr. Murphy
+counseled, and Matt closed with All Hands And Feet, and managed to
+shake the badly winded champion off.
+
+"All off," Mr. Murphy declared to the American consul and dropped his
+marline-spike, as Matt Peasley ripped left and right, right and left
+into Ole Peterson's dish face.  "Watch the skipper--our skipper, I
+mean. Regular young human pile-driver."  He raised his voice and
+called to Matt Peasley.  "He's rocking on his legs now, sir; but keep
+away from those arms.  He's dangerous and you're givin' him fifty
+pounds the best of it in the weights.  Try the short ribs with your
+left and feel for his chin with the right, sir.  Very nicely done,
+sir!  Now--once more!"
+
+Mr. Murphy nodded politely to the American consul.
+
+"Excuse me," he said.  "The bigger they are the harder they fall, and
+the Retriever's deck ain't no nice place to bump a man's head.  I'll
+just skip round in back and catch him in my arms."
+
+Which being done, Mr. Murphy laid All Hands And Feet gently on deck,
+walked to the scuttle butt, procured a dipperful of water and threw it
+into the gory, battered face.  Matt Peasley had simply walked round
+him and, with the advantage of a superior reach, had systematically
+cut Captain Ole Peterson to strings and ribbons.
+
+He held up the blood-soaked gloves for Mr. Murphy to untie the
+strings, the while he sniffed a little afternoon breeze that had just
+sprung up, blowing straight for the open sea.
+
+"When he comes to, Mr. Murphy," he ordered calmly, "escort him to your
+old room.  Have one of the men stow his dunnage there also; and tell
+him if he shows his nose on deck until I give him permission, he shall
+have another taste of the same.  Mr. Consul, I should be highly
+honored if you would step into my cabin and hoist one to our own dear
+native land."
+
+"With pleasure," the consul replied.  "Though I cannot, in my capacity
+as a citizen of the United States, endorse your--er--mutiny,
+nevertheless, as a United States consul at Cape Town I shall take
+pleasure in certifying to the fact that the fallen gladiator was the
+aggressor, that he did not present his credentials, and that you had
+no official knowledge of his identity."
+
+"I wish you would make an affidavit to that effect, under the seal of
+the Consulate, and mail it to me at Hoquiam, Washington, U. S. A.,"
+Matt pleaded, as they reached his cabin.  He reached into poor old
+Cap'n Noah's little private locker.  "I've a suspicion, sir, I'm going
+to need your affidavit very badly."
+
+"I shall do so, Mr. Peasley.  May I inquire what you purpose doing
+with Captain Peterson?"
+
+"Captain Peasley--if you please, Mr. Consul."  Matt looked up and
+grinned.  "I think," he continued, as he inserted the corkscrew, "I
+shall ship that boy as second mate if he's willing to work.  If he's
+sullen, of course he'll have to remain in his room--and I shall not
+permit him to present his credentials now."
+
+"Captain Peasley," the consul warned seriously.  "I'm afraid you're in
+very, very Dutch."
+
+"I wouldn't be surprised.  However, it will be about three months
+before I commence to suffer, and in the meantime I'm going to be
+supremely happy skippering the barkentine Retriever back to Grays
+Harbor, if they hang me for it when I get there. Say when!"
+
+"When!"
+
+"Here's success to crime, Mr. Consul."
+
+"Good luck to you, you youthful prodigy; good luck and bon voyage,
+Mr.--I mean Captain Peasley."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Consul. I hate to hurry you away; fact is, I'd like to
+have you stay aboard and have dinner with us, but if this breeze holds
+good I can save my owners an outward towage bill, and I'll have to
+hustle.  So I'll bid you good-bye, Mr. Consul.  Glad to have had you
+for the little exhibition.  Here is my name and address--and please
+don't forget that affidavit."
+
+When the American consul left the ship Matt Peasley was on the poop
+bawling orders; up on the topgallant forecastle the capable Mr. Murphy
+and his bully boys were walking around the windlass to the bellowing
+chorus of Roll A Man Down! while the boatswain, promoted by Matt
+Peasley to second mate, was laying aloft forward shaking out the
+topsails and hoisting her head-sails.  When the consul looked again,
+the American barkentine Retriever had turned her tail on Cape Town and
+was scampering down Table Bay with a bone in her teeth; heeling gently
+to the freshening breeze, she was rolling home in command of the boy
+who had joined her five months before as an able seaman.
+
+Matt Peasley rounded the Cape of Good Hope nicely, but he had added
+materially to his stock of seamanship before he won through the
+tide-rips off Point Aghulas and squared away across the Indian Ocean.
+Coming up along the coast of Australia he had the sou'east trades and
+he crowded her until Mr. Murphy forgot the traditions of the sea,
+forgot that Matt Peasley was the skipper and hence not to be
+questioned, and remembered that the madman was only a boy.
+
+"Captain Matt," he pleaded, "take some clothes off the old girl, for
+the love of life!  She's making steamer time now, and if the breeze
+freshens you'll lift the sticks out of her."
+
+"Lift nothing, Mike.  I know her.  Cap'n Noah told me all about her.
+You can drive the Retriever until she develops a certain little squeak
+up forward--and then it's time to shorten sail.  She isn't squeaking
+yet, Mike.  Don't worry.  She'll let us know," and his beaming glance
+wandered aloft to the straining cordage and bellying canvas.  "Into
+it, sweetheart," he crooned, "into it, girl, and we'll show this Cappy
+Ricks what we know about sailing a ship that can sail!  Meager
+maritime experience, eh?  I'll show him!"
+
+  Oh, Sally Brown, I love your daughter,
+  I love your daughter, indeed I do,
+
+he caroled, and buck-and-winged his way back to the poop, for he was
+only a boy, life was good, he was fighting a fight and as Mr. Murphy
+remarked a minute later when Matt ordered him to bend the
+fore-staysail on her; "What the hell!"
+
+Day and night Matt Peasley drove her into it.  He stood far off shore
+until he ran out of the sou'east trades, fiddled around two days in
+light airs and then picked up the nor'east trades; drove her well into
+the north, hauled round and came romping up to Grays Harbor bar
+seventy-nine days from Cape Town.  A bar tug, ranging down the coast,
+hooked on to him and snaked him in.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MR. SKINNER RECEIVES A TELEGRAM
+
+
+Cappy Ricks was having his customary mid-afternoon nap in his big
+swivel chair and his feet on his desk, when Mr. Skinner came in and
+woke him up.
+
+"I just couldn't help it, sir," he announced apologetically, as Cappy
+opened one eye and glared at him, "I had to wake you up and tell you
+the news."
+
+"Tell it!" Cappy snapped.
+
+"The Retriever arrived at Grays Harbor this morning, Mr. Ricks.  She's
+broken the record for a fast passage," and he handed Cappy Ricks a
+telegram.
+
+"Bless my withered heart!" Cappy declared, and opened his other eye.
+"You don't tell me?  Well, well, well!  All Hands And Feet is making
+good right off the bat, isn't he?" Cappy chuckled.  "Skinner, my dear
+boy," he bragged, "did you ever see me start out to pick a skipper and
+hand myself the worst of it?"
+
+"No, sir," Mr. Skinner maintained dutifully, and turned away to hide a
+wicked little smile, which under the circumstances Skinner was
+entitled to.
+
+"And you never will, Skinner.  Paste that in your hat, boy.  That big
+Swede, Peterson, can handle a ship as well as he can handle a
+refractory mate--and that's going some, Skinner--going some!  I'm not
+surprised at his fast passage.  Not at all, Skinner.  Come to think of
+it, I'm going to fire that Scotchman in the Fortuna and give All Hands
+And Feet his berth.  He has earned it."
+
+He adjusted his spectacles and read:
+
+                                        Hoquiam, Washington,
+                                          June 27, 19--.
+
+  Blue Star Navigation Company,
+    258 California St.,
+      San Francisco.
+
+  Arrived this morning, seventy-nine days from bar to bar, all
+  hands well, including your special messenger.  Offered him job
+  as second mate, just to show I had no hard feelings, but he
+  would not work, so I brought him home under hatches.  Permitted
+  him present his formal credentials this morning and turned over
+  command of ship to him.  Declined responsibility and left,
+  saying you had promised him command four-masted schooner.
+  Seemed trifle hurt, although it is seventy-nine days since I
+  thrashed him.  Consequently I am still in command and awaiting
+  your instructions.
+
+                                        Peasley.
+
+For a long time Cappy Ricks kept looking sternly at Mr. Skinner over
+the tops of his spectacles.  There was blood on the moon again, and
+the silence was terrible.  He kept rocking gently backward and forward
+in his swivel chair, for all the world as though preparing for a
+panther-like spring at Mr. Skinner's throat.  Suddenly he exploded.
+
+"I won't have another thing to do with the man Peasley!" he shrilled.
+"The fellow is a thorn in my side and I want peace!  Understand,
+Skinner?  I--want--peace!  What in blue blazes do I pay you ten
+thousand a year for if it isn't to give me peace?  Answer me that,
+Skinner."
+
+"Well you said you wanted to attend to the shipping--"
+
+"That'll do, Skinner--that'll do!  You're an honorary member of the
+I-told-you-so Club and I'm thoroughly disgusted with you.  Rid me of
+this man--immediately.  If I ever get another telegram from the
+scoundrel I shall hold you personally responsible."
+
+Forthwith Mr. Skinner acted.  He went up to the office of the United
+States District Attorney and swore out a Federal warrant for the
+arrest of Matthew Peasley on a charge of mutiny and insubordination,
+assault and battery on the high seas, and everything else he could
+think of. The authorities promptly wired north to send a United States
+marshal down to Grays Harbor to arrest the culprit; and the following
+afternoon, when Cappy Ricks got back to his office after luncheon and
+picked up the paper, the very first thing his glance rested on was the
+headline:
+
+          MATE CHARGED WITH MUTINY!
+
+Mutiny and sundry other crimes on the high seas are out of the
+ordinary; hence the United Press correspondent at Hoquiam had
+considered the story of Matt Peasley's arrest worthy of dissemination
+over the Pacific Coast.
+
+Cappy Ricks read it, the principal item of interest in it being a
+purported interview with Matt Peasley, who, in choice newspaperese,
+had entered a vigorous denial of the charge.  The story concluded with
+the statement that Peasley was a native of Thomaston, Maine, where he
+had always borne a most excellent reputation for steadiness and
+sobriety.
+
+Cappy Ricks laid the paper aside.
+
+Thomaston, Maine!  So the man Peasley was a Down-Easter!  That
+explained it.
+
+"Well, I hope my teeth may fall into the ocean!" Cappy murmured.
+"Thomaston, Maine!  Why, he's one of our own town boys--one of my own
+people!  Dear, dear, dear!  Well now, it's strange I didn't know that
+name.  I must be getting old to forget it."
+
+He sat in his swivel chair, rocking gently backward and forward for
+several minutes, after a fashion he had when perturbed.  Suddenly his
+old hand shot out and pressed the push button on his desk, and his
+stenographer answered.
+
+"Send Mr. Skinner in!" he commanded.
+
+Presently Mr. Skinner came, and again Cappy eyed him over the tops of
+his spectacles; again the terrible silence.  Skinner commenced to
+fidget.
+
+"Skinner," began Cappy impressively, "how often have I got to tell you
+not to interfere with the shipping?  Tut, tut!  Not a peep out of you,
+sir--not a peep!  You had the audacity, sir, to swear to a Federal
+warrant against the man Peasley.  How dare you, sir?  Do you know who
+the man Peasley is?  You don't.  Well, sir, I'll tell you.  He's a
+Down-East boy and I went to school with his people.  I'll bet Ethan
+Peasley was a relative of this boy Matt, because Ethan had a cousin by
+the name of Matthew; and Ethan and Matt and I used to hell around
+together until they went to sea.
+
+"Lord bless you, Skinner, I can remember yet the day the Martha
+Peasley came up the harbor, with her flag at half-mast--and poor old
+Ethan was gone--whipped off the end of her main yard when she rolled!
+
+"We were great chums, Ethan and I, Skinner; and I cried.  Why--why,
+damn it, sir, this boy Matt's people and mine are all buried in the
+same cemetery back home.  Yes, sir!  And nearly all of 'em have the
+same epitaph--'Lost at Sea'--and--you idiot, Skinner!  What do you
+mean, sir, by standing there with your infernal little smile on your
+smug face? Out of my office, you jackanapes, and call the dogs off
+this boy Matt. Why, there was never one of his breed that wasn't a man
+and a seaman, every inch of him.
+
+"All Hands And Feet thrash a Peasley!  Huh!  A joke!  Why, Ethan was
+six foot six at twenty, with an arm like a fathom of towing cable.
+Catch me turning down one of our own boys!  No, sir!  Not by a damned
+sight!"
+
+In all his life Mr. Skinner had never seen Cappy Ricks so wrought up.
+He fled at once to call off the dogs, while Cappy turned to his desk
+and wrote this telegram:
+
+                                   San Francisco, California.
+                                     June 28, 19--.
+
+  Matt Peasley,
+    Care United States Marshal,
+      Hoquiam, Washington.
+
+  Congratulations on splendid voyage.  You busted record.
+  Lindquist, in the John A. Logan, did it in eighty-four days in
+  the spring of ninety-four.  Draw draft and pay off crew, render
+  report of voyage, place second mate in charge, and proceed
+  immediately to Seattle to get your master's ticket.  Will
+  telegraph Seattle inspectors requesting waive further probation
+  as first mate and issue license if you pass examination in
+  order that you may accept captaincy of Retriever.  Skinner, my
+  manager, had you arrested.  Would never have done it myself.  I
+  come from Thomaston, Maine, and I knew your people.  Would
+  never have sent the Swede had I known which tribe of Peasley
+  you belonged to--though, if he had licked you, no more than you
+  deserved.  I want no more of your impudence, Matt.
+
+                                   Alden P. Ricks.
+
+        *        *        *        *        *        *
+
+For a week business droned along in Cappy Ricks' office as usual,
+interrupted at last by the receipt of a telegram from Matt Peasley to
+Cappy.  It was sent from Seattle and read:
+
+  "Have now legal right to be called captain.  Rejoin ship
+  tomorrow.  Wire orders.  Thank you."
+
+"God bless the lad!" Cappy murmured happily. "I'll bet he's going to
+make me a skookum skipper.  Still, I think he's pretty young and sadly
+in need of training; so I'll have to take some of the conceit out of
+him.  I'm going to proceed to break his young heart; and if he yells
+murder I'll fire him!  On the contrary, if he's one of Ethan's
+tribe--well, the Peasleys always did their duty; I'll say that for
+them.  I hope he stands the acid."
+
+Whereupon Cappy Ricks squared round to his desk and wrote:
+
+                                   San Francisco, July 5, 19--.
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+    Master Barkentine Retriever,
+      Hoquiam, Washington.
+
+  Glad you have legal right to be called captain.  Sorry I have
+  not.  Proceed to Weatherby's mill, at Cosmopolis, and load for
+  Antofagasta, Chile.  Remember speed synonymous with dividends
+  in shipping business.
+
+                                   Blue Star Navigation Company.
+
+When Cappy signed his telegrams with the company name it was always a
+sure indication he had discharged his cargo of sentiment and gotten
+down to business once more.
+
+"A little creosoted piling now and then is bully for the best of men,"
+he cackled.  "For a month of Sundays that man Peasley will curse me as
+far as he can smell the Retriever.  Oh, well!  Every dog must have his
+day--and I'm a wise old dog.  I'll teach that Matt boy some respect
+for his owners before I'm through with him!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OPENS
+
+
+When Matt Peasley's Yankee combativeness, coupled with the accident of
+birth in the old home town of Cappy Ricks, gained for him command of
+the Blue Star Navigation Company's big barkentine, Retriever, he
+lacked eight days of his twenty-first birthday.  He had slightly less
+beard than the average youth of his years; and, despite the fact that
+he had been exposed almost constantly to salty gales since his
+fourteenth birthday, he did not look his age.  And of all the
+ridiculous sights ashore or afloat the most ridiculous is a sea
+captain with the body of a Hercules and the immature features of an
+eighteen-year-old boy.
+
+Indeed, such a great, soft, innocent baby type was Matt Peasley that
+even the limited sense of humor possessed by his motley crew forbade
+their reference to him, after custom immemorial, as the Old Man.  The
+formal title of captain seemed equally absurd; so they compromised by
+dubbing him Mother's Darling.
+
+"If," quoth Mr. Michael Murphy, chief kicker of the Retriever, over a
+quiet pipe with Mr. Angus MacLean, the second mate, as the vessel lay
+at anchor in Grays Harbor, "Cappy Ricks had laid eyes on Mother's
+Darling before ordering him to Seattle to go up for his master's
+ticket, the old fox would have scuttled the ship sooner than trust
+that baby with her."
+
+"Ye'll nae be denying the lad kens his business," Mr. MacLean
+declared.
+
+"Aye!  True enough, Mac; but 'twould be hard to convince Cappy Ricks
+o' that.  Every skipper in his employ is a graybeard."
+
+"Mayhap," the canny MacLean retorted.  "That's because t'owd boy's
+skippers have held their berths ower long."
+
+But Mr. Murphy shook his head. He had come up from before the mast in
+the ships of the Blue Star Navigation Company, and since he had
+ambitions he had been at some pains to acquaint himself with the
+peculiarities of the president of that corporation.
+
+"Give Cappy Ricks one look into Matt Peasley's face and I'll be
+skippering the Retriever," he declared.
+
+And in this he was more than half right, for Cappy Ricks had never met
+Matt Peasley, and when the Old Man made up his mind that he wanted the
+boy to skipper his barkentine, the Retriever, he was acting entirely
+on instinct.  He only knew that in Matt Peasley he had a man who had
+shipped out before the mast and returned from the voyage in command of
+the ship, and naturally such an exploit challenged recognition of the
+most signal nature--particularly when, in its performance, the object
+of Cappy's admiration had demonstrated that he was possessed of
+certain sterling attributes which are commonly supposed to make for
+success in any walk of life.
+
+Since Matt Peasley had accomplished a man's work it never occurred to
+Cappy Ricks to consider that the object of his interest might be a
+boy. Young he knew him to be--that is to say, Cappy figured the rascal
+to be somewhere between thirty and thirty-five.
+
+Had he known, however, that his prospective captain had but recently
+attained his majority the Old Man would have ascribed Matt Peasley's
+record-breaking voyage from Cape Town to Grays Harbor as sheer luck,
+and forthwith would have set Master Matthew down for a five-year
+apprenticeship as first mate; for Cappy was the product of an older
+day, and held that gray hairs and experience are the prime requisites
+for a berth as master.
+
+Any young upstart can run coastwise, put in his service sailing a ship
+from headland to headland, and then take a course in a navigation
+school, where in six weeks he can cram sufficient navigation into his
+thick head to pass the inspectors and get a master's ticket; but for
+offshore cruising Cappy Ricks demanded a real sailor and a thorough
+business man rolled into one.
+
+Mother's Darling had returned to Grays Harbor from a flying visit to
+Seattle, where two grizzled old ex-salts, the local inspectors, had
+put him through a severe examination to ascertain what he knew of
+Bowditch on Navigation and Nichols on Seamanship.  Naturally he did
+not know as much as they thought he should; but, out of sheer
+salt-water pride in the exploit of a stripling and in deference to a
+letter from Cappy Ricks requesting them to waive further probation as
+chief mate and issue Mr. Peasley his master's license if they found
+him at all competent--this in order that the said Peasley might take
+command of his barkentine, the Retriever, forthwith--the inspectors
+concluded to override the rules of the Department of Commerce, and
+gave Matt Peasley his master's license.
+
+Upon his return from Seattle, Matt called at the telegraph office in
+Hoquiam and received his loading instructions from the owners.  His
+heart beat high with youthful importance and the joy of victory as he
+almost ran to the water front and engaged a big gasoline launch to
+take him aboard the Retriever and then kick her into the mill dock at
+Cosmopolis.  His ship was not where he had left her, however, and
+after an hour's search he discovered her several miles up the Chehalis
+river. Murphy was on deck, gazing wistfully at the house and wishing
+he had some white paint, when Matt Peasley came aboard.  Even before
+the latter leaped to the deck Mr. Murphy knew the glad tidings--knew
+them, in fact, the very instant the boy's shining countenance appeared
+above the rail. The skipper was grinning fatuously and Mr. Murphy
+grinned back at him.
+
+"Well, sir," he greeted young Matt, "I see you're the permanent
+skipper.  I congratulate you."
+
+"Thank you, Mike.  And I hope you will have no objection to continuing
+in your berth as first mate.  I realize I'm pretty young for an old
+sailor like you to be taking orders from--"
+
+"Bless your soul, sir," Mr. Murphy protested; "of course I'll stick
+with you!  Didn't you whale the big Swede Cappy Ricks sent to Cape
+Town to kick you out of your just due?"  He reaffirmed his loyalty
+with a contemptuous grunt.
+
+"What are you doing way up the river?" the captain demanded.
+
+"Oh, that's a little liberty I took," the mate declared.  "You're new
+to this coast; and, of course, when they ordered us to Grays Harbor I
+knew we weren't going to be able to go on dry dock, because there
+isn't any dry dock here.  So, while you were in Seattle, I had a
+gasoline tug tow us up-river.  We've been lying in fresh water four
+days, sir, and that'll kill most of the worms on her bottom."
+
+"Hereafter," said Matt Peasley, "you get ten dollars a month above the
+scale.  Thank you."
+
+Mr. Murphy acknowledged his appreciation.
+
+"Any orders, sir?" he continued.
+
+Matt Peasley showed him Cappy Ricks' telegram and Mr. Murphy nodded
+his approval.  He had been in port nearly a week and the whine of the
+sawmills and the reek of river water had begun to get on his nerves.
+He was ready for the dark blue again.
+
+"There's something wrong about our cargo, I think," Matt remarked
+presently.
+
+"Why, sir?"
+
+"Why, down at the telegraph office this morning I met the master of
+the schooner, Carrier Dove, and when I told him my orders he
+snickered."
+
+"Huh!  Well, he ought to know what he snickered about, sir.  The
+Carrier Dove just finished loading at Weatherby's mill," Mr. Murphy
+replied. "She's a Blue Star craft and bound for Antofagasta also.  Her
+skipper's Salvation Pete Hansen, and it would be just like that
+squarehead to dodge a deckload of piling and leave it for us."
+
+"Well, whatever it was it amused him greatly.  It must be worse than a
+deckload of piling."
+
+"There's nothing worse in the timber line, unless it's a load
+underdeck, sir.  You take a sixty-foot pile with a fourteen-inch butt
+and try to shove it down through the hatch, and you've got a job on
+your hands. And after the hold is half filled you've got to quit
+loading through the hatch, cut ports in your bows, and shove the
+sticks in that way.  It's the slowest loading and discharging in the
+world; and unless you drive her between ports and make up for the lost
+time you don't make a good showing with your owners--and then your
+job's in danger.  Ship owners never consider anything except results."
+
+"Well," the captain answered, "in order not to waste any more time
+than is absolutely necessary, call Mr. MacLean and the cook, and we'll
+go for'd and break out the anchor."
+
+Immediately on his arrival from Cape Town, Matt Peasley had paid off
+all his foremast hands, leaving the two mates and the cook the only
+men aboard the vessel.  He joined them now in a walk around the
+capstan; the launch hooked on and the Retriever was snaked across the
+harbor to Weatherby's mill.  And, while they were still three cables'
+length from the mill dock, Mr. Murphy, who had taken up his position
+on the topgallant forecastle, to be ready with a heaving line,
+suddenly raised his head and sniffed upwind.
+
+The captain had the wheel and Mr. MacLean was standing aft waiting to
+do his duty by the stern line. Presently he, too, raised his head and
+sniffed.
+
+"I see you got it too, Mac," Mr. Murphy bawled.
+
+"Aw, weel," Mr. MacLean replied; "Why worrit aboot a bridge till ye
+hae to cross it?  D'ye ken 'tis oors?"
+
+"What are you two fellows talking about and why are you sniffing?"
+Matt Peasley demanded.
+
+"I'm sniffing at the same thing Salvation Pete Hansen laughed about,"
+the mate answered.  "I'll bet you a uniform cap we're stuck with a
+cargo of creosoted piling--and hell hath no fury like a creosoted
+pile."
+
+When the vessel had been made fast to the mill dock Matt Peasley
+walked forward to meet his mate.
+
+"What about this cargo of ours?" he demanded.  "Remember, I'm new to
+the lumber trade on this coast.  I have never handled any kind of
+piling."
+
+"Then, sir, you're going to get your education like the boa
+constrictor that swallowed the nigger--all in one long, slimy bite."
+
+He gazed at his boyish skipper appraisingly.
+
+"No," he murmured to himself; "I can't do it.  I like you for the way
+you whaled that big Swede in Cape Town, but this is too much."
+
+"Why, I don't find the odor so very unpleasant," the master declared;
+"in fact, I rather like it, and I know it's healthy, because I
+remember, when my brother Ezra had pneumonia, they burned creosote in
+the room."
+
+"Oh, nobody objects to the smell particularly, sir, though it's been
+my experience that anybody can cheapen a good thing by overuse--and we
+have three months of that smell ahead of us.  It's the taste that
+busts my bobstay."
+
+"Why, what do you mean?"
+
+"Well, you see, sir, the odor of creosote is so heavy it won't float
+in the air, but just settles down over everything, like mildew on a
+pair of boots.  So it gets in the stores and you taste it.  You can
+store flour below deck aft and creosoted piling on deck for'd--and you
+won't be out two weeks before that flour is spoiled.  Same way with
+the tea, coffee, sugar, mush, salt-horse--everything.  It all tastes
+of creosote; and then the damned stuff rubs off on the ship and ruins
+the paintwork.  And if the crew happen to have any cuts or abrasions
+on their hands they're almost certain to get infected with the awful
+stuff, and you'll be kept busy doctoring them.  Then, the first thing,
+along comes a gale and you're shorthanded, and there's the devil to
+pay."
+
+"Aye!" Mr. MacLean interrupted solemnly.  "I dinna care for creosote
+mysel', sir; so, wi' your kind permission, I'll hae ma time--an' I'll
+hae it noo."
+
+Matt Peasley bent upon the recalcitrant Scotchman a withering glare.
+"Very well, Mr. MacLean," he said presently, "I never could sail in
+the same ship with a quitter; so you might as well go now, when we can
+part good friends."  He turned to Mr. Murphy.  "How about you, Mike?
+Are you going to run out on me, too?"
+
+Now, as between the Irish and the Scotch, history records no
+preponderance of courage in either, for both are Gaels and a
+comparison is difficult.
+
+However, Scotchmen are a conservative race and will walk round a fight
+rather than be forced into it, while all that is necessary to make an
+Irishman fight is to impugn his courage.
+
+Mr. Murphy had seen the fight ahead of the Retriever and he did not
+blame Mr. MacLean for side-stepping it.  Indeed, he had intended
+pursuing the same course; but Matt Peasley, by his latest remark, had
+rendered that impossible.  To desert now would savor of dishonor; and,
+moreover, Matt Peasley, though master, had called him by his Christian
+name.  Mr. Murphy touched his forelock respectfully.
+
+"I am not Scotch," he announced, with a slight emphasis on the
+pronoun. "Shame on you, Angus MacLean--ditching the skipper like
+that!"
+
+"Sticks an' stones may break ma bones, but names'll never hur-rt me,"
+Mr. MacLean retorted.  "I tell ye I dinna care for creosote in ma
+porridge."  And he followed Matt Peasley aft, where the latter paid
+him off and gave him five minutes to pack and get off the ship.
+Immediately after supper the cook followed the second mate; but, since
+the former was a Jap and probably the worst marine cook in the world,
+his departure occasioned no heartache.
+
+"We'll board at the mill cook-house until we're loaded, Mike," Matt
+Peasley informed the mate.  "They have a good Chink up there."
+
+Mr. Murphy sighed as he loaded his pipe and struck a match for it.
+
+"It does look to me, sir," he replied, with that touch of conscious
+superiority so noticeable in the Celt, "as though Cappy Ricks might
+have slipped this cargo to a Dutchman."
+
+The Retriever commenced taking on cargo at seven o'clock the following
+morning, with Mr. Murphy on shipboard and Matt Peasley on the dock
+superintending the gang of stevedores.  Ordinarily the masters of
+lumber freighters ship their crews before commencing to load, in order
+that sailors at forty dollars a month may obviate the employment of an
+equal number of stevedores at forty cents an hour; but Mr. Murphy, out
+of his profound experience, advised against this course, as tending to
+spread the news of the Retriever's misfortune and militate against
+securing a crew when the vessel should be loaded and lying in the
+stream ready for sea.  Men employed now, he explained, would only
+desert.  The thing to do was to let a Seattle crimp furnish the crew,
+sign them on before the shipping commissioner in Seattle, bring them
+aboard drunk, tow to sea, and let the rascals make the best of a bad
+bargain.
+
+The hold was about half filled, and the ship carpenters were at work
+cutting ports in the Retriever's bows, when Matt Peasley discovered
+that the mill did not have in hand any order for lumber to be used as
+stowage to snug up the cumbersome cargo below decks and keep it from
+rolling and working in a seaway.  Accordingly he wired his owners as
+follows:
+
+                         Cosmopolis, Washington, July 7, 19--.
+
+  Blue Star Navigation Company,
+    258 California St.,
+      San Francisco, California.
+
+  No stowage.
+
+                                                  Peasley.
+
+Cappy Ricks having deliberately conspired to hang a series of dirty
+cargoes on his newest skipper, for the dual purpose of teaching Matt
+Peasley his place and discovering whether he was worthy of it, grinned
+evilly when he received that two-word message; and, not to be out-done
+in brevity, he dictated this answer:
+
+                         San Francisco, California, July 7, 19--.
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+    Master Barkentine Retriever,
+      Care Weatherby's mill, Cosmopolis, Wash.
+
+  Know it.
+
+                                Blue Star Navigation Company.
+
+Matt Peasley's cheeks burned when he read that message.  Indeed, could
+Cappy Ricks have been privileged to hear the terse remarks his
+telegram elicited, there is no doubt he would have sent Mr. Skinner up
+to the custom-house immediately to file a certificate of change of
+master.
+
+"Ha!" Mr. Murphy snorted when Matt showed him the message.  "I get the
+old sinner now.  This is to be a grudge fight, Captain Matt.  You
+wished yourself onto him in Cape Town against his will, and now he's
+made up his mind that so long as you wanted the job it's yours--only
+he'll make you curse the day you ever moved your sea chest into the
+skipper's cabin.  He's going to send us into dogholes to load and open
+roadsteads to discharge; and if he can find a dirty cargo anywhere
+we'll get it. But it's carrying a grudge too far not to give us
+stowage."
+
+"Well, it's his ship," Matt Peabody declared passionately.  "If the
+old thief can gamble on good weather I guess I can gamble on my
+seamanship--and yours."
+
+The mate inclined his head at the delicate compliment; and Matt,
+observing this, decided that a few more of the same from time to time
+would do much to alleviate a diet of creosote.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AN OLD FRIEND RETURNS AND CAPPY LEADS ANOTHER ACE
+
+
+Three days before the Retriever finished loading, the captain wired a
+trustworthy Seattle crimp recommended by Mr. Murphy, instructing him
+to send down a second mate, eight seamen and a good cook--and to bring
+them drunk, because the vessel was laden with creosoted piling.
+Captain Noah Kendall, Matt's predecessor on the Retriever, had been
+raised on clipper ships and as he grew old had allowed himself the
+luxury of a third mate, to which arrangement Cappy Ricks, having a
+certain affection for Captain Noah, had never made any objection; but
+something whispered to Matt Peasley that the quickest route to Cappy's
+heart would be via a short payroll, so he concluded to dispense with a
+third mate and tack ten dollars a month extra on the pay-check of the
+excellent Murphy.
+
+The Retriever was lying in the stream fully loaded when the crew
+arrived, convoyed by the crimp's runner.  In accordance with
+instructions they were drunk, the crimp having furnished his runner
+with a two-gallon jug of home-made firewater upon leaving Seattle.
+One man--the second mate--was fairly sober, however, and while the
+launch that bore him to the Retriever was still half a mile from the
+vessel the breezes brought him an aroma which could not, by any
+possibility, be confused with the concentrated fragrance of the eight
+alcoholic breaths being exhaled around him.  Muttering deep curses at
+his betrayal, he promptly leaped overboard and essayed to swim ashore.
+The runner pursued him in the launch, however, and gaffed him by the
+collar with a boat-hook; the launch-man, for a consideration, aided
+the runner, and the unwilling wretch was carried struggling to
+purgatory.
+
+"Oh, look who's here!" Mr. Murphy yelled to the skipper, as the
+bedraggled second mate was propelled forcibly up the ship's
+companion-ladder to the waiting arms of the first mate.  "Welcome
+home, Angus, my lad."
+
+It was Mr. MacLean, their quondam second mate, cast back on the
+deckload of the Retriever by the resurgent tide of maritime
+misfortune.  Mr. Murphy sat down and held himself by the middle and
+laughed until the tears ran down his ruddy cheeks, while Matt Peasley
+joined heartily in the mirth.  The unfortunate Mr. MacLean also
+wept--but from other causes, to wit--grief and rage.
+
+"I'm happy to have you with us again, Mr. MacLean," Matt saluted the
+second mate.  "While your courage and loyalty might be questioned,
+your ability may not.  So the crimp swindled you, eh?  Told you he
+wanted you for another ship and then switched the papers on you, eh?"
+
+"You should never trust a crimp, Angus," Mr. Murphy warned him.  "And
+you should never do business with them unless you're cold sober.  Let
+this be a lesson to you, my lad.  Never be a drinking man and you'll
+never have to go to a crimp for a snug berth.  Run along to your old
+room, now, Angus, and shift into some dry clothes, if you expect to
+finish the voyage."
+
+"I'll gie ye ma worrd I'll desert in th' discharrgin' port!" Mr.
+MacLean burred furiously.  "Ye hae me noo, body an' bones--"
+
+"Aye, and we'll keep you, Angus. Have no fear of that.  And you'll not
+desert in the discharging port.  I'll see to that," Matt Peasley
+assured him.
+
+When the last man had been assisted aboard Matt signaled for the tug
+he had engaged.  By the time she had hooked on and towed them over the
+bar three of the seamen were sober enough to assist the skipper and
+the mates in getting all plain sail, with the exception of the square
+sails, on her, and, with a spanking nor'west breeze on her quarter she
+rolled away into the horizon.
+
+Despite the fact that the Retriever's bottom was rather foul with
+marine growth, and the further fact that her master had to lay her
+head under her wing in a blow which, with an ordinary cargo, he would
+have bucked right into, the run to Antofagasta was made in average
+time.  And when Matt Peasley went ashore to report by cable to his
+owners he discovered that Cappy Ricks had provided him with a cargo of
+nitrate for Makaweli.
+
+"What did I tell you, sir?" Mr. Murphy growled when the captain
+informed him of the owners' orders.  "I tell you, sir, the dirtiest
+cargo Cappy Ricks can find is too good for us.  Praise be, the worst
+we can get at Makaweli is a sugar cargo."
+
+Mr. Murphy's grudge against nitrate lay in the annoyance incident to
+taking on the cargo properly.  Nitrate is very heavy and cannot, like
+sugar, be loaded flush with the hatches, thus rendering shifting of
+the cargo impossible.  In loading nitrate a stout platform must be
+erected athwart ship, above the keelsons, in order that the foundation
+of the cargo may be laid level; for, as the sacked nitrate is piled,
+the pile must be drawn in gradually until the sides meet in a peak
+like a roof. It must then be braced and battened securely with heavy
+timbers from each side of the ship, in order that the dead weight may
+be held in the center of the ship and keep her in trim.  Woe to the
+ship that shifts a cargo of nitrate in a heavy gale; for it is a
+tradition of the sea that, once a vessel rolls her main yard under,
+she will not roll it back, and ultimately is posted at Lloyd's as
+missing.
+
+When the cargo was out Mr. Murphy went ashore and purchased a lot of
+Chinese punk, which he burned in the hold, with the hatches battened
+down, while Mr. MacLean, who had once been a druggist's clerk, and
+who, by the way, had concluded to stay by the ship, sloshed down the
+decks with an aromatic concoction mixed by a local apothecary.  The
+remnant of their spoiled stores Matt Peasley, like a true Yankee,
+sawed off to good advantage on a trustful citizen of Antofagasta, and
+credited the ship with the proceeds; after which he got his nitrate
+aboard and squared away for the Hawaiian Islands.
+
+The run to Makaweli was very slow, for the ship was logy with the
+grass and barnacles on her bottom.  At Makaweli he found a sugar cargo
+awaiting him for discharge at Seattle; and, thanks to the northwest
+trades at her quarter, the Retriever wallowed home reasonably fast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+INSULT ADDED TO INJURY
+
+
+When Matt Peasley's report of that long voyage reached the Blue Star
+Navigation Company it was opened by Mr. Skinner, who, finding no
+letter enclosed, had a clerk check and verify it, and then pass it on
+to old Cappy Ricks.
+
+"Where's the letter that came with this report, Skinner?" Cappy piped.
+
+"He didn't enclose one, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Im-possible!"
+
+"All of Captain Peasley's communications with this office since he
+entered our employ have been by wire."
+
+"But--dad-burn the fellow, Skinner--why doesn't he write and tell us
+something?"
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about his ship, his voyage--any old thing.  An owner likes to
+have a report on his property once in a while, doesn't he?  Unless we
+happen to charter the Retriever for a cargo to her home port, you know
+very well, Skinner, we may not see her for years.  Besides, I've never
+seen the man Peasley, and if he'd only write now and then I could get
+a line on him from his letters.  I can always tell a fool by the
+letter he writes, Skinner."
+
+"Well, then," Skinner replied.  "Peasley must be a wise man, because
+he never writes at all.  The only specimen of that fellow's
+handwriting I've ever seen is his signature on the drafts he draws
+against us.  You will notice that he has even engaged a
+stenographer--at his own expense, so the clerk informs me--to
+typewrite his statement of account."
+
+"Then that explains it, Skinner.  The big-fisted brute can't write a
+hand that anybody could read.  But, still, he should have dictated a
+letter, Skinner.  The least he might have done was to say: 'Enclosed
+herewith find my report of disbursements for last voyage.' And then he
+could have slipped in some mild complaint about the creosote, the
+trouble he had in getting a crew, and so on.
+
+"I don't see why you complain about a lack of correspondence, sir,"
+Mr. Skinner protested.  "For my part, I think it a profound relief to
+have a captain that isn't writing or wiring in complaints about slow
+dispatch in loading or discharging, his private feuds with marine
+cooks and walking delegates from the Sailors' Union.  Confound these
+fellows that are always unloading a cargo of woe on their owners!  It
+strikes me that they're trying to square themselves for incompetence."
+
+"I agree with you, Skinner.  But then, all the Thomaston Peasleys were
+quick-tempered and wouldn't be imposed on; and I hate to think I've
+picked the only one of the tribe who will dog it and never let a peep
+out of him."
+
+"Oh!" said Mr. Skinner.  "I see!  You want him to start something with
+you, eh?"
+
+Cappy evaded this blunt query, however, and turned his attention to
+the report.
+
+"Hello!" he said.  "I'm blessed if he hasn't anticipated the very
+question I should have asked.  Here's a footnote in red ink: 'Decided
+not to carry third mate.  Two mates ample.'  And so two mates are
+ample, Skinner, though I used to humor Cap'n Noah with three. This
+confirms me in the belief that Peasley must be a young man, Skinner,
+and not afraid to stand a watch himself if necessary.  And here's
+another footnote: 'Chief Mate Michael J. Murphy very gallantly
+declined to leave when he smelled the creosote, and was a tower of
+strength when it came to stowing the nitrate.  He holds an unlimited
+mate's license, is sober, intelligent, courageous, honest and a hard
+worker.  He goes up for his master's license this week!"
+
+"Ah-h-h!" Cappy Ricks looked up, smiling.  "Skinner," he declared, "it
+is as hard to keep a good man down as it is for a camel to enter the
+Kingdom of Heaven--I mean for a rich man to enter a camel--bother!  I
+mean you can't keep a good man down, Skinner.  And this is the reason:
+The first mate, Murphy, wanted to leave, but his loyalty would not
+permit it.  Hence the man Peasley must be a good, fair, decent man, to
+inspire such loyalty.  He is, and this report proves it.  His action
+in bringing Murphy to our attention indicates appreciation and a sense
+of justice.  Good!  Skinner, make a note of the qualifications of
+Michael J. Murphy for a master's berth and give him the first
+opening."
+
+He returned to a perusal of the report.
+
+"Huh!  Harump-h-h-h!  'Credit by skipper's rake-off on stores, and so
+on, $57.03.'  Skinner, that proves the man Peasley is too decent and
+honest to accept a commission from the thieves who supply his vessel,
+because he knows that if they give him a commission they'll only tack
+it on to the bill, where he can't see it.  Well!  All the Thomaston
+Peasleys were honest, Skinner.  No thanks to him.  Still, it's a shame
+to give him another rough deal, for apparently he
+has--er--many--er--commendable qualities.  Still--er--Skinner, I've
+just got to have a letter from the man Peasley, if it is only a letter
+of resignation.  Get him another dirty cargo, Skinner, the dirtier the
+better."
+
+The dirtiest cargo Mr. Skinner could think of, with the exception of a
+load of creosoted piling, was another cargo of the same.  So he
+scoured the market and finally he found one on Puget Sound, whereupon
+he sent Matt Peasley a telegram ordering him to tow to the Ranier Mill
+and Lumber Company's dock at Tacoma, and load for Callao.  At the same
+time he wired the Ranier people requesting them to be ready to furnish
+cargo to the Retriever the following day--this on the strength of a
+telegram from Matt Peasley received the previous day informing his
+owners that he was discharged and awaiting orders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+RUMORS OF WAR
+
+
+When four days had elapsed the manager of the Ranier mill wired the
+Blue Star Navigation Company that the Retriever had not yet appeared
+at their dock.
+
+Now four days wasted means something to a big barkentine like the
+Retriever; and in the absence of any excuse for the delay Cappy Ricks
+promptly came to the conclusion that Matt Peasley was ashore in
+Seattle, disporting himself after the time-honored custom of deep-sea
+sailors home from a long cruise.  There could be no other reason for
+such flagrant inattention to orders; for, had the man Peasley been
+ill, the mate, Murphy, whom the captain vouched for as sober and
+intelligent, would have had his superior sent to a hospital and wired
+the office for orders.
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy, "send in a stenographer."
+
+When the girl appeared Cappy Ricks dictated this wire:
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+    Master Barkentine Retriever,
+      Colman Dock, Seattle, Washington.
+
+  Are you drunk, dead or asleep?  You have your orders.  Obey
+  them P.D.Q. or turn over command to Chief Mate Murphy.
+
+                                        Alden P. Ricks.
+
+"There!" he shrilled.  "I've signed my name to it. Sign a telegram
+Blue Star Navigation Company and these infernal skippers think a clerk
+sent it; but when they know the boss is on to them they'll jump
+lively. Bring me the answer to that as soon as it comes, Skinner."
+
+However, the answer did not come that day.  Indeed, the next day had
+almost dragged to a close before Mr. Skinner appeared with this
+telegraphic bomb:
+
+  Alden P. Ricks,
+    258 California St.,
+      San Francisco.
+
+  Neither!  Been waiting my turn to go on dry dock.  On now.
+  Didn't reply yesterday because too busy driving toothpicks in
+  vessel's bottom to plug up wormholes.  If Murphy hadn't hauled
+  into fresh water last time on Grays Harbor while I was in
+  Seattle getting my ticket, her bottom would look like a
+  colander now.  Sixteen months in the water.  You ought to be
+  ashamed to treat a good staunch ship like that.  Off dock day
+  after to-morrow; will tow to Tacoma immediately thereafter.
+  Meantime expect apology for insulting telegram.
+
+                                                  Peasley.
+
+Sixteen months without dry-docking!  Why, her bottom must look like
+the devil!  Cappy Ricks gazed long and earnestly at his general
+manager.
+
+"Skinner," he said, "you're an ass!  Why was not this vessel
+dry-docked before you sent her to Antofagasta?"
+
+Mr. Skinner lost his temper.
+
+"Because I didn't send her to Antofagasta," be replied sharply.  "You
+did!  And the reason she wasn't docked is because there isn't a dock
+on Grays Harbor.  If you wouldn't interfere in the shipping, Mr.
+Ricks, and spoil my plans to satisfy your personal whims, the vessel
+would never have gone on that long voyage without being cleaned and
+painted."
+
+"Enough!" Cappy half screamed.  "It's a disgrace!  Not another word,
+sir!  Not another peep out of you.  Why didn't you order the man
+Peasley to dock her?  Why did you leave the decision to him?  He knew
+his vessel was foul--he thought we ought to know it, also; and
+naturally he expected that when we ordered him to Seattle we would
+have made arrangements to put him on dry dock.  Instead of which he
+had to make them himself; and I'm shown up as a regular,
+infernal--er--er--baboon! Yes, sir!  Regular baboon!  Nice spectacle
+you've made of me, getting me into a scrape where I have to apologize
+to my own captain!  Baboon! Huh!  Baboon!  Yes; you're the baboon!"
+
+"Well, I can't think of everything, Mr. Ricks--"
+
+"Everything!  Good Lord, man, if you'd only think of something!  Send
+in a stenographer."
+
+Mr. Skinner rang for the girl and retired in high dudgeon, while Cappy
+Ricks smote his corrugated brow and brought forth the following:
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+    Master Barkentine Retriever,
+      Hall's Dry Dock, Eagle Harbor, Wash.
+
+  "Yes; that was a grave oversight sending you to Antofagasta
+  without docking you first.  Express my appreciation of Murphy's
+  forethought in killing some of the worms.  Am not kind of owner
+  that lets a ship go to glory to make dividends.  Keep your
+  vessel in top-notch shape at all times, though I realize this
+  instruction unnecessary to you.  Give the old girl all that is
+  coming to her, including two coats X. & Y. copper paint.
+  Replace all planking that looks suspicious.
+
+                                        Alden P. Ricks.
+
+"I guess that's friendly enough," he soliloquized.  "I think he'll
+understand.  I don't have to crawl in the dirt to let him know I'm
+sorry."
+
+Cappy had recovered his composure by the following morning and was
+addressing Mr. Skinner as "Skinner, my dear boy," when another
+telegram from Matt Peasley created a very distinct variation in his
+mental compass.  It ran as follows:
+
+  Alden P. Ricks,
+    258 California St.
+      San Francisco.
+
+  X. & Y. copper paint no good.  That brand used last time; hence
+  worms got to her quickly.  Giving her two coats O. & Z.  Costs
+  more, but does the business.  Renewed about a dozen planks.
+  Repair bill about offsets profit on that infernal nitrate.
+  Your apology accepted, but do not say that again!
+
+                                                  Peasley.
+
+"'Your apology is accepted!'" Cappy's voice rose, shrill with anger.
+"Why, the infernal--er--er--porpoise!  Me apologize to a man I employ!
+By jingo, I'd fire him first!  Yes, sir--fire him like that!"  The old
+man snapped his fingers.
+
+"Really, Skinner, I don't know what I'm going to do about the man
+Peasley.  I want to befriend him, because he's one of my own people,
+so to speak; but I greatly fear, Skinner, I shall have to rough him.
+Here he is, disputing with me--with me, Skinner--the relative merits
+of copper paint.  And not only disputing, sir, but disobeying my
+specific instructions.  Also, he permits himself the luxury of
+criticism.  Well! I'll not fire him this time; but, by the gods, I'll
+give him a blowing-up he'll remember.  Skinner, send in a
+stenographer."
+
+"Take letter," the old man ordered presently, and proceeded to
+dictate:
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+    Master Barkentine Retriever,
+      Care Rainier M. & L. Co.,
+        Tacoma, Washington.
+
+  Sir:--Your night letter of the fifth is before me and treasured
+  for its unparalleled effrontery.
+
+  Please be advised that in future, when an extraordinary outlay
+  of cash for your vessel's accounts is contemplated, this office
+  should first be consulted.  When, in your judgment, your vessel
+  requires docking, repairs, new spars, canvas, and so on, you
+  will apprise us before proceeding to run up a bill of expense
+  on your owners.  Your business is to navigate your vessel.
+  Spending money judiciously is a fine art which no sailor, to my
+  knowledge, has ever acquired.
+
+  Though admitting that the vessel needed docking, I maintain you
+  should have wired us of that fact, whereupon we would have
+  ordered you to the dry dock patronized by this company.  It is
+  customary for owners to express a preference for dry docks and
+  copper paint; and in presuming to go counter to my specific
+  instructions in the matter of paint you are prejudicing your
+  future prospects with this company.
+
+  Another exhibition of your arrogance, impudence, general bad
+  manners and lack of knowledge of the ethics of your profession
+  will result in prompt dismissal from the service of the Blue
+  Star Navigation Company.
+
+                                      Yours, and so on,
+                                        Alden P. Ricks, President
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WAR!
+
+
+The receipt of Cappy Ricks' letter actually frightened Matt Peasley
+for about thirty seconds.  Then he reread the last paragraph.  Like a
+dutiful servant he forgave Cappy the letter's reference to arrogance,
+impudence and general bad manners; but the reference to his lack of
+knowledge of the ethics of his profession made him fighting mad.
+
+Cappy Ricks might just as well have passed him the supreme insult of
+the seas: "Aw, go buy a farm!"  He showed the letter to Mr. Murphy.
+
+"Why, that's adding insult to injury!" the mate declared
+sympathetically.
+
+The youthful master threw up both hamlike hands in token of complete
+surrender and profound disgust.
+
+"There's the gratitude of an owner!" he raved. "He wires me my loading
+orders and never says a word about docking--though as managing owner
+it's up to him to know when the vessel needs docking.  I can't plan
+her comings and goings so that at the proper time she'll find herself
+at a port with a dry dock.  Of course when he wired me my loading
+orders I realized he wasn't going to dock me; so I took matters into
+my own hands.  Why, Mike, I wouldn't skipper a ship so foul she can
+hardly answer her helm.  How could I know he'd forgotten she needed
+docking? I'm not a mind reader."
+
+"I suppose he's been so busy hunting another dirty cargo for us he
+hadn't time to think of the vessel," Mr. Murphy sneered, and added:
+"The dirty old skin-flint!"
+
+"Well, I'll just tell Cappy Ricks where to head in!" Matt stormed.
+"Let him fire me if he wants to.  I don't care to sail a
+ship--particularly a dirty ship--for any man who thinks I don't know
+my business.  Mike, I'm going to send him a telegram that'll burn his
+meddling old fingers."
+
+"Give him hell for me!" pleaded Mr. Murphy.  "If he fires you I'll
+quit, too."
+
+The result of this colloquy was that Cappy Ricks received this night
+letter the following morning:
+
+  Alden P. Ricks,
+    258 California St.,
+      San Francisco.
+
+  Referring your letter.  Men that taught me nautical ethics
+  expected things done without orders, minus thanks for doing
+  them well, plus abuse for doing them poorly.  Regard your
+  criticism as out of place.  Am not the seventh son of a seventh
+  son.  How could I know you had overlooked fact that vessel
+  needed docking?  Your business to plan my voyages to get me to
+  dry-dock port at least once a year.  When you wired loading
+  orders, concluded you were cheap owner; hence decided dock her
+  without orders.  Expect to be fired sooner or later, but will
+  leave good ship behind me so my successor cannot say, "Peasley
+  let her run down."  Had I waited orders, vessel would have been
+  ruined.  Yet you have not sufficient grace to express your
+  thanks.  Had I not acted in this emergency, you would have
+  fired me later for incompetence, and blacklisted me for not
+  telling you what you know you ought to know without being told.
+
+  Referring copper paint, I know from practical experience which
+  brand is best; you know only what paint dealer tells you.  Will
+  not stand abuse for knowing my business and attending to it
+  without instructions from landlubber!  When you appointed me
+  you said remember speed synonymous with dividends in shipping
+  business.  How can I make fast passages with whiskers two feet
+  long on my keel?  Send new flying jib and spanker next loading
+  port.  Send new skipper, too, if you feel that way about it.
+
+                                                  Peasley.
+
+"Well, Skinner," Cappy Ricks declared, "this is the first time a
+skipper in my employ ever talked back--and it'll be the last.  I've
+had enough of this fellow's impudence, Skinner.  He's right at
+that--blast him--but he's too much of a sea lawyer; and I won't have
+any employee of mine telling me how to run my business.  Send in a
+stenographer."
+
+When the stenographer entered Cappy Ricks said:
+
+"Ahem-m!  Harump-h-h-h!  Take telegram:  'Captain Matthew Peasley,
+care Rainier Mill and Lumber Company, Tacoma, Washington.  You're
+fired! Ricks.'  Ahem!  Huh!  Har-ump!  Take 'nother telegram:  'Mr.
+Michael J. Murphy, First Mate Barkentine Retriever'--same address as
+Peasley--'Accept this telegram as your formal appointment to command
+of our barkentine, Retriever, vice Matthew Peasley, discharged this
+day; forwarding to-morrow certificate of change of master."  Sign
+that:  'Blue Star Navigation Company, per Alden P. Ricks,' and get both
+telegrams on the wire right away."
+
+Cappy turned to Mr. Skinner and chuckled sardonically.
+
+"I'll bet that will gravel the man Peasley," he declared.  "There's
+nothing harder on a captain than being fired, and succeeded by his own
+mate--particularly after he has so recently recommended that mate!
+Peasley will be wild--the pup!"
+
+"Well," Mr. Skinner replied, "appointing Mr. Murphy certainly has this
+advantage,--he's there on the ground and we are thus spared the
+expense of sending a man from here."
+
+"That's one of the reasons why I appointed him--one of three very
+excellent reasons, in fact.  Now we'll wait and see what the man
+Peasley has to say to that telegram."
+
+They had to wait about two hours, and this was what Matt Peasley had
+to say:
+
+  "Many thanks.  The second mate and the cook quit the minute
+  they discovered it was to be another cargo of creosoted piling;
+  and now that I am fired Mr. Murphy has concluded that he might
+  as well quit also.  Will stick by ship, however, until you send
+  my successor; meantime loading continues as usual."
+
+"Well, that's what the man Peasley says!" Cappy snapped.  "Murphy's
+quit, eh?  Well, I guess Mr. Murphy hadn't received my telegram when
+Peasley sent this message.  It'll take more than a cargo of creosoted
+piling to keep Murphy out of the master's cabin when he hears from
+me."
+
+The stenographer entered with another telegram.
+
+"Ah!" Cappy remarked, and rubbed his hands together in pleased
+anticipation.  "I dare say this is from Mr. Murphy."
+
+It was; and this is what the loyal Murphy had to say:
+
+  "I thank you for the consideration.  Very sweet of you; but I
+  wouldn't work for you again on a bet.  You couldn't hand me a
+  ripe peach!  Master or mate, creosote tastes the same to me.
+  At Captain Peasley's request am staying by vessel until new
+  master arrives and hires new mate.  Would have stuck by vessel
+  for Old Man's sake if you'd slipped us cargo of uncrated
+  rattlesnakes; but since I encouraged him to tell you things for
+  good of your soul and you fired him for it I must decline to
+  profit by his misfortune."
+
+Silently Cappy Ricks folded that telegram and laid it on his desk; his
+head sagged forward on his breast and he fell to meditating deeply.
+Finally he looked up and eyed Mr. Skinner over the rims of his
+spectacles.
+
+"Skinner," he said solemnly, "do you realize, my boy, that we have two
+extremely remarkable men on the barkentine Retriever?"
+
+"They are certainly most remarkably deficient in respect to their
+superiors, though in all probability exceedingly capable seamen," Mr.
+Skinner answered sympathetically, for he had great veneration for the
+creator of the pay roll.
+
+"I know," Cappy replied sadly; "but then, you know, Skinner, the good
+Lord must certainly hate a bootlicker!  Skinner, I simply cannot
+afford to lose those two damned scoundrels in the Retriever.  They're
+good men! And a good man who knows he's good will not take any slack
+from man or devil; so I cannot afford to lose those two.  Skinner,
+I've got myself into an awful mess.  Here I've been running by dead
+reckoning and now I'm on the rocks!  What'll I do, Skinner?  I'm
+licked; but, dang it all, sir, I can't admit it, can I?  Isn't there
+some way to referee this scrap and call it a draw?"
+
+"I see no way out of it now except to send another captain to Tacoma."
+
+"Skinner," he declared, "you're absolutely no use to me in an
+emergency. When I made you my general manager, on a bank president's
+salary, I thought I'd be able to take it easy for the rest of my
+life."  He wagged his head sadly.  "And what's the result?  I work
+harder than ever. Skinner, if I hadn't any more imagination than you
+possess I'd be out there on the corner of California and Market
+Streets peddling lead pencils this minute.  Leave this problem to me,
+Skinner.  I suppose I'll find a way out of it, with entire honor to
+all concerned.  Holy sailor!" he added.  "But that man Murphy is
+loyal--and loyalty is a pretty scarce commodity these days, let me
+tell you!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CAPPY FORCES AN ARMISTICE
+
+
+During the week that succeeded, Cappy Ricks did not once mention the
+subject of the Retriever and her recalcitrant skipper and mate; and
+Mr. Skinner argued from this that all was well.  Finally one day Cappy
+came into the office and paused beside the general manager's desk.  He
+was grinning like a boy.
+
+"Well, Skinner," he piped.  "I've just come from the Merchants'
+Exchange and I see by the blackboard that our Retriever cleared for
+Antofagasta yesterday."
+
+"Indeed!" Mr. Skinner replied politely.  "So you found a captain for
+her.  Whom did you send?"
+
+"Nobody," the old man cackled.  "Matt Peasley took her out, and the
+manager of the Rainier mill wires me that Murphy went with him as
+chief kicker.  What do you think of that?"
+
+"Why, I'm--er--satisfied if you are, sir."
+
+"Well, you can bet I'm satisfied.  If I wasn't I'd have a revenue
+cutter out after the man Peasley and his mate right now.  By golly,
+Skinner," he piped, and slapped his wizened flank, "I tell you I've
+worked this deal pretty slick, if I do say it myself.  And all on dead
+reckoning--dead reckoning, and not a single day of demurrage!"
+
+"Oh!  So you wired Peasley and the mate and asked them to go back to
+work and forget they were discharged?" Mr. Skinner suggested
+witheringly.
+
+"Skinner, on my word, you grow worse every day.  You've been with me,
+man and boy, twenty-odd years, and in all that time you never saw
+anybody cover me with blood, did you?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"And you never will.  Why, I managed this affair by simply forgetting
+all about it!  When you're in a jam, Skinner, always let the other
+fellow do the talking.  I just sat tight until I had a telegram from
+the man Peasley, informing me that the vessel would be loaded in two
+days and that his successor had not appeared as yet.  I threw that
+telegram in my wastebasket; and when the vessel was loaded I had
+another telegram from Peasley, saying that the vessel was loaded, that
+his successor was still missing, and the mill manager was kicking and
+insisting that the ship be hauled away from the dock to make room for
+a steam schooner which wanted to load.  So I filed that telegram in
+the wastebasket also. It was a night letter, delivered in the morning.
+
+"When Peasley didn't get an answer by noon he wired again, saying
+that, as a favor to me, he would haul the Retriever into the stream,
+but would accept no responsibility for delay thereafter.  He said
+further that, as a courtesy to me and his successor, he was shipping a
+crew that day in order that there might be no delay in sailing when
+the new captain arrived; so I thought I had better reply to that
+telegram, Skinner--and I did!"
+
+"What did you say, Mr. Ricks?"
+
+"I said: 'Please do not annoy me with your telegrams.  You were fired
+a week ago, but it seems difficult for you to realize that fact.  If
+demurrage results through my failure to get new skipper there in time,
+that is no skin off your nose.  Your pay goes on until you are
+relieved, and you will be relieved when I get good and ready.'  That
+telegram did the business, Skinner.  He received it the day before
+yesterday and yesterday he towed out!"
+
+Cappy Ricks burst into a shrill senile cackle that was really good to
+hear.  As they grow old most men lose that capacity for a hearty
+laugh, but Cappy's perversity had kept him young at heart.  The tears
+of mirth cascaded down his seamed old countenance now, and he had to
+sit down and have his laugh out.
+
+"Oh, thunder!" he panted.  "Really, Skinner--there's so much fun in
+business I wonder why a man can retire--just because he's made his
+pile! Skinner, I had it on the man Peasley a thousand miles--and he
+never guessed it!  Dear, dear me!  You see, Skinner, when he wired me
+he would not accept responsibility for demurrage to the vessel after
+she was loaded and hauled into the stream, he forgot that he had to
+accept responsibility for the vessel himself until his successor
+should arrive!
+
+"Of course, the man Murphy could quit any time he desired; but if the
+skipper deserted the ship before being properly relieved, and then
+something happened to the vessel and I preferred charges against him,
+the inspectors might be induced to revoke his license--and he realized
+that.  The knowledge made him hopping mad, Skinner; and when he got my
+telegram I knew he would begin to figure out some plan to make me mad!
+And, of course, I knew Murphy would help him out--the Irish are
+imaginative and vindictive; and--oh, dear me, Skinner--read that!" And
+Cappy handed his general manager the following telegram:
+
+  You are right.  I will be relieved when I get good and ready,
+  and I will not be ready until I get back from Antofagasta.
+  Shipped crew yesterday afternoon.  All arrived drunk.  Next
+  morning all hands sober.  Realizing predicament, riot resulted.
+  Fearing lose crew, Murphy and I manhandled and locked in
+  fo'castle.  When your telegram arrived it found Murphy minus
+  front tooth, myself black eye.  Can stand injury, but not
+  insult.  Hence you are stuck with us for another voyage,
+  whether you want us or not.  Will have towed out by time you
+  receive this.  Go to Halifax!
+
+                                                  Peasley.
+
+Mr. Skinner's face was cold and austere as he handed this telegram
+back to Cappy.
+
+"So you made peace with honor, eh?" he sneered.
+
+"Peace your grandmother!" Cappy chirped.  "This war goes on until I
+get a letter from the man Peasley.  Skinner, he and Murphy think
+they've done something wonderfully brilliant.  When I wired him he
+would be relieved when I got good and ready it did him an awful lot of
+good to throw the words back in my face.  Sure, Skinner!  They think
+they're giving Cappy Ricks the merry ha-ha!"
+
+"Well, of course, sir,"' said Mr. Skinner, "if this sort of horseplay
+is your fun--if it's your notion of business--I have no comment.  You
+own fifteen-sixteenths of the Retriever, and you can afford to pay for
+your fancies; but if it was the last act of my life I'd fire that man
+Peasley in Callao and let him get home as best he could."
+
+"Yes; I know," Cappy replied bitterly. "You fired him in Cape Town
+once--and how did he come home?  He came home in the cabin of the
+Retriever--that's how he came home; and the Terrible Swede I sent to
+thrash him and fire him came home under hatches.  Yes; you'd do a lot
+of things, Skinner--in your mind."
+
+Mr. Skinner pounded his desk savagely.  Cappy's retort made him
+boiling mad.
+
+"Well, I'll bet I'd do something," he rasped.  "I'd make that bucko
+suffer or I'd know the reason why."
+
+"Skinner, that's just what we're going to do--just what we're doing,
+in fact.  One of my ancestors sailed with the late John Paul Jones and
+ever since the Ricks' family motto has been: 'I have not yet begun to
+fight.' Now listen to reason, Skinner.  The Retriever just came off
+dry-dock, didn't she?  Well, it stands to reason she was dirty after
+that last cargo of creosoted piling; and it stands to reason, also,
+that the man Peasley slicked her up with white paint until she looked
+like an Easter bride.  A Scandinavian doesn't give a hoot if his
+vessel is tight, well found and ready for sea; but a Yankee takes a
+tremendous pride in his ship and likes to keep her looking like a
+yacht.  And just think, Skinner, how the man Peasley must have felt
+when he came off dry dock, all clean and nice, and then had to slop
+her up with another cargo of creosoted piling?  Just think of that,
+Skinner!" and again he commenced his insane cackle.
+
+"I have other, and more important things to think about," Mr. Skinner
+retorted icily.  As a business man he was opposed to levity in the
+office.  "What are your plans with reference to the Retriever?  Do you
+wish to bring her back from Antofagasta in ballast?"
+
+"Why, certainly not.  Hunt a cargo for her, Skinner.  We might just as
+well let the man Peasley know that though he's gone he's not
+forgotten. Use the cable freely and see if you can't pick up something
+for the return trip that will make those two firebrands sick at the
+stomach."
+
+A month later Mr. Skinner stepped into Cappy's sanctum.
+
+"Well," he announced.  "I've got a return cargo for the Retriever."
+
+"What have you got?" Cappy demanded anxiously; and Mr. Skinner told
+him.
+
+"No?" said Cappy incredulously.
+
+"Yes!" Mr. Skinner assured him.
+
+Cappy's laughter testified to his hearty approval.
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," he cried.  "I don't know what I'd do without
+you."
+
+And then he laid his wicked old head on his desk and laughed until he
+wept.  Indeed, Mr. Skinner so far forgot his code as to laugh with
+him.
+
+"We'll stink those two vagabonds--those maritime outlaws--out of the
+ship," he declared.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE WAR IS RENEWED
+
+
+The belief that they had come off victorious in their skirmish with
+Cappy Ricks cheered Matt Peasley and his mate for the first two weeks
+out from Puget Sound; after which the creosote commenced to season
+their food, and then the victory began to take on the general
+appearance of a vacuum.  However, thanks to a clean keel and fair
+winds, they made a smashing passage and their sufferings were not
+unduly prolonged.
+
+Immediately on his arrival at Antofagasta the young skipper reported
+by cable to his owners, thereby eliciting the following reply from
+Cappy Ricks:
+
+  "You stole ship.  If you value your ticket bring her back with
+  cargo agent provides."
+
+Naturally this somewhat cryptic cablegram roused Matt Peasley's
+curiosity.  He could not rest until be had interviewed the agent--and
+after that sop to his inquisitiveness he returned to the Retriever a
+broken man.  The loyal and disgusted Murphy read the trouble in the
+master's face.
+
+"What new deviltry's afoot now, Matt?" he demanded, in his eagerness
+and sympathy forgetting the respect due his superior.
+
+"Green hides, Mike!" the skipper answered, in his distress failing to
+notice the mate's faux pas and making one himself.  "Green hides, old
+pal; and they stink something horrible.  Back to Seattle with the
+dirty mess, and then another cargo of creosoted--"
+
+"King's X!" yelled Mr. Murphy.  "I crossed my fingers the minute your
+face appeared over the rail.  I quit--and I quit as soon as this
+piling is out.  I tell you I won't keep company with green hides.  No,
+sir; I won't.  I tell you I will--not--do it!  Why, we might as well
+have a dead hog in the hold!  Captain Matt, I hate to throw you down
+in a foreign port; but this--is absolutely--the finish!"
+
+"Do you value your ticket, Mike?" the captain queried ominously.
+
+"What's a ticket when a man's lost his self-respect?" Mr. Murphy
+raved.
+
+Matt handed him Cappy's cablegram and the mate read it.
+
+"I think that bet goes double, Mike," the skipper warned him.  "You
+signed for the round trip.  I've got to go through--and there's
+strength in numbers."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Murphy reluctantly, "I suppose I do attach a
+certain--er--sentimental value to my ticket."
+
+"I thought you would.  Cappy's got us by the short hair, Mike; and the
+only thing to do is to fly to it, with all sails set.  We must never
+let on he's given us anything out of the ordinary."
+
+Mr. Murphy shivered; for, as Cappy had remarked to Mr. Skinner, the
+mate was Irish, hence imaginative.  He imagined he smelled the green
+hides already, and quite suddenly he gagged and sprang for the rail.
+Poor fellow!  He had stood much of late and his stomach was a trifle
+sensitive from a diet of creosote straight.
+
+Somehow they got the awful cargo aboard, though, at that, there were
+not sufficient hides to half load her; in consequence of which all
+hands realized that Cappy had merely given them this dab of freight to
+sicken them.  They cursed him all the way back to Seattle, where the
+crew quit the minute the vessel was made fast to the dock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+CAPPY SEEKS PEACE
+
+
+"Here's a telegram for you, sir," Mr. Murphy remarked when Matt
+Peasley came aboard after cashing a draft on the Blue Star Navigation
+Company to pay off his crew.  It proved to be from Cappy Ricks and
+said merely:
+
+"Discharge that cargo of hides or take the consequences!"
+
+"The old sinner thought I'd dog it, I suppose," Matt sneered, as he
+passed the message to Mr. Murphy, who shivered as he read it.  "I
+guess you're elected, Mike," the skipper continued.  "The second mate
+has quit.  However, it isn't going to be very hard on you this time.
+I was speaking to the skipper of that schooner in the berth ahead of
+us, and he gave me a recipe for killing the perfume of a cargo of
+green hides."
+
+"If he'd given it to us in Antofagasta, I'd name a ship after him some
+day," Mr. Murphy mourned.
+
+"Well, we've gotten it in time to be of some use," Matt declared.
+"You don't suppose I'm going to let this old snoozer Ricks get away
+with the notion that he put one over on us, do you?  Shall we haul Old
+Glory down?  No!  Never!  I'll just switch off the laughing gas on
+Cappy Ricks," and the young skipper went ashore and wired his managing
+owner as follows:
+
+  "Green hides are the essence of horror if you do not know how
+  to handle them.  Fortunately I do.  Pour water on a green hide
+  and you muzzle the stink.  I judge from your last telegram you
+  thought you handed me something."
+
+When Cappy Ricks got that telegram he flew into a rage and refused to
+believe Matt Peasley's statement until he had first called up a dealer
+in hides and confirmed it.  The entire office staff wondered all that
+day what made Cappy so savage.
+
+By the following day, however, Cappy's naturally optimistic nature had
+reasserted itself.  He admitted to himself that he had fanned out, but
+still the knowledge brought him some comfort.
+
+"He's walloped me so," Cappy soliloquized, "he just can't help writing
+and crowing about it.  If I didn't do anything else I bet I've pried a
+letter out of him.  It certainly will be a comfort to see something
+except a telegram and a statement of account from that fellow."
+
+However, when the report of the voyage arrived, Mr. Skinner reported
+that it contained no letter.  Cappy's face reflected his
+disappointment.
+
+"I guess you'll have to go stronger than green hides to get a yelp out
+of that fellow," Mr. Skinner predicted.
+
+"Why, there isn't anything stronger than a cargo of green hides,
+Skinner," Cappy declared thoughtfully.  He clawed his whiskers a
+moment. Then: "What have you got for her on the Sound, Skinner?"
+
+"Nothing nasty, sir.  We'll have to give him a regular cargo this
+time--that is, unless he quits.  I've got a cargo for Sydney, ready at
+our own mill at Port Hadlock."
+
+"Well, he hasn't resigned yet," Cappy declared; "so we might as well
+beat him to it.  Wire him, Skinner, to tow to our mill at Port Hadlock
+and load for Sydney.  If he believes we're willing to call this thing
+a dead heat he may conclude to stick.  Tell him this is a nice cargo."
+Again Cappy clawed his whiskers.  "Sydney, eh?" he said musingly.
+"That's nice!  We can send him over to Newcastle from there to pick up
+a cargo of coal, and maybe he'll come home afire!  If we can't hand
+him a stink, Skinner, we'll put a few gray hairs in his head."
+
+These instructions Mr. Skinner grudgingly complied with; and Matt
+Peasley, with his hatches wide open and buckets of punk burning in the
+hold to dispel the lingering fragrance of his recent cargo--concluding
+that, on the whole, he and Mr. Murphy had come through the entire
+affair very handsomely indeed--towed down to Hadlock and commenced to
+take on cargo.  If Cappy Ricks was willing to declare a truce then
+Matt Peasley would declare one too.
+
+Matt's peaceful acquiescence in his owner's program merely served to
+arouse Cappy Ricks' abnormal curiosity.  The more he thought of Matt
+Peasley the greater grew his desire for a closer scrutiny.  The most
+amazing man in the world had been in his employ a year and a half, and
+as yet they had never met; unless the Retriever should happen to be
+loaded for San Francisco years might elapse before they should see
+each other; and now that he had attained to his allotted three score
+years and ten Cappy decided that he could no longer gamble on the
+future.
+
+He summoned Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," he announced with the naive simplicity that
+made him so lovable.  "I suppose it's very childish of me, but I have
+a tremendous desire to see this extraordinary fellow Peasley."
+
+"You can afford to satisfy your slightest whim, Mr. Ricks," he
+replied. "I'll load her for San Francisco after she returns from
+Australia.  I daresay if he ever gets through the Golden Gate he'll
+call up at the office."
+
+"Skinner, I can't wait that long.  Many things may happen.  Ahem!
+Harump-h-h-h!  Wire the man Peasley, Skinner, to have his photograph
+taken and forwarded to me immediately charging expense."
+
+"Very well, sir," Mr. Skinner responded.
+
+"Well, I'll be keel-hauled and skull-dragged," Matt Peasley declared
+to Mr. Murphy.  "Here's a telegram from the owners demanding my
+photograph."
+
+Mr. Murphy read the amazing message, scratched his raven poll, and
+declared his entire willingness to be damned.
+
+"It's a trap," he announced presently.  "Don't send it.  Matt, you
+look about twenty years old and for the next few years, if you expect
+to work under the Blue Star flag, you must remember your face isn't
+your fortune.  You've got to be pickled in salt for twenty years to
+please Cappy Ricks.  If he sees your photograph he'll fire you, Matt.
+I know that old crocodile.  All he wants is an excuse to give you the
+foot, anyhow."
+
+"But he's ordered me to send it, Mike.  How am I going to get out of
+it?"
+
+As has been stated earlier in this tale, Mr. Murphy had an
+imagination.
+
+"Go over into the town, sir," he said, "and in any photograph gallery
+you can pick up a picture of some old man.  Write your name across it
+and send it to Cappy.  He'll be just as happy, then, as though he had
+good sense."
+
+"By George, I'll just do that!" Matt declared, and forthwith went
+ashore.
+
+He sought the only photographer in Port Hadlock.  At the entrance to
+the shop he found a glass case containing samples of the man's art,
+and was singularly attracted to the photograph of a spruce little old
+gentleman in a Henry Clay collar, long mutton-chop whiskers, and
+spectacles.
+
+Moreover, to Matt's practiced eye, this individual seemed to savor of
+a Down-Easter.  He was just the sort of man one might expect to bear
+the name of Matthew Peasley; so the captain mounted the stairs and
+sought the proprietor, from whom he purchased the picture in question
+for the trifling sum of fifty cents.  Then he bore it away to the
+Retriever, scrawled his autograph across the old gentleman's hip and
+mailed the picture to Cappy Ricks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+PEACE AT LAST!
+
+
+Mr. Skinner entered Cappy Ricks' office bearing an envelope marked
+"Photo.  Do not crush or bend!"  From the announcement in the upper
+right-hand corner the general manager deduced that the photograph was
+from Matt Peasley.
+
+"Well, here's Captain Peasley's picture, Mr. Ricks," he announced.
+
+"Ah!  Splendid.  Prompt, isn't he?" Cappy tore open the envelope, drew
+forth the photograph, scrutinized it carefully and then laid it face
+down on his desk, while he got out his spectacles, cleaned them
+carefully, adjusted them and gazed at the photograph once more.
+
+"Ahem!  Hu-m-m-m!  Harump-h-h-h!  Well, Skinner, life is certainly
+full of glad surprises," he announced presently, and
+added--"particularly where that man Peasley is concerned.  I never did
+see the beat of that fellow."
+
+"May I see his photograph, sir?" Mr. Skinner pleaded.
+
+"Certainly," and Cappy passed it to the general manager, who glanced
+once at it and smiled down whimsically at Cappy.
+
+"Yes, I agree with you, Mr. Ricks," he said.  "Of all the surprises
+that man Peasley has handed us, this is the greatest."
+
+Cappy nodded and smiled a little prescient smile.  "Skinner," he said,
+"send in a stenographer.  I'm going to send him a telegram."
+
+He did.  Matt Peasley blinked when he got it, and for the first time
+since he had commenced exchanging telegrams and cablegrams with the
+peculiar Mr. Ricks he was thoroughly non-plussed--so much so, in fact,
+that he called his right bower, Michael J. Murphy, into consultation.
+
+"Mike," he said, and handed the mate the telegram, "what in the world
+do you suppose the old duffer means by that?"
+
+Mr. Murphy read:
+
+  "Matt, I always knew you were young, but I had no suspicion you
+  were a child in arms until I received your photograph."
+
+"Serves you right," the mate declared.  "I told you to send the photo
+of an OLD man."
+
+"But I did, Mike.  I sent him a picture of an old pappy-guy sort of
+man, with long, mutton-chop whiskers, glasses and an old-fashioned
+collar as tall as the taffrail."
+
+"It beats my time then what he's driving at, Captain Matt.  But then
+one can never tell what Cappy Ricks is up to.  I've heard he's a great
+hand to have his little joke, so I daresay that telegram is meant for
+sarcasm."
+
+Matt had a horrifying inspiration.  "I know what's wrong," he cried
+bitterly.  "He thinks I'm so old I ought to be retired, and that
+telegram is in the nature of a hint that a letter, asking for my
+resignation, is on the way now."
+
+"Why--why--why?" Mr. Murphy stuttered, "did you send him the picture
+of Methuselah himself?  Heaven's sake, skipper, there's a happy
+medium, you know.  I meant for you to pick yourself out a man of about
+fifty-five, and here you've slipped him a patriarch of ninety.
+Sarcasm!  I should say so."
+
+They stared at each other a few seconds; then Mr. Murphy had an
+equally disturbing inspiration.
+
+"By Neptune!" he suggested, "maybe you sent him the picture of
+somebody he knows!"
+
+"Well, in that case, Mike, I'm not going to hang on the hook of
+suspicion.  Maybe I can find out whose picture I sent," and away Matt
+went up town to the photograph gallery.  When he returned ten minutes
+later Mr. Murphy, sighting him a block in the offing, knew the skipper
+of the barkentine Retriever for a broken man!  Beyond doubt he had
+shipped a full cargo of grief.
+
+"Well?" he queried as Matt hove alongside.  "Did you find out?"
+
+Matt nodded gloomily.
+
+"Who?" Mr. Murphy demanded peremptorily.
+
+"Cappy Ricks!" Matt almost wailed.
+
+"NO!" Mr. Murphy roared.
+
+"Yes!  The old scoundrel was up here three years ago, visiting this
+mill--you know, Mike, he owns it--and the Retriever was here loading
+at the time.  He and Captain Kendall were close friends, and they went
+over to that photograph shop, had their pictures taken and
+swapped--and like a poor, helpless, luckless boob I had to come along
+and buy the sample picture the photographer hung in his case.  It
+never occurred to me to ask questions--and I might have known nobody
+but a prominent citizen ever gets into a show-case--"
+
+"Glory, glory, hallelujah," Mr. Murphy crooned in a deep, chain-locker
+voice, and fled from the skipper's wrath.
+
+An hour later, in the privacy of his cabin, Matt Peasley took his pen
+in hand and wrote to Cappy Ricks:
+
+  Mr. Alden P. Ricks,
+    Dear Sir:--
+
+  I herewith tender my resignation as master of the barkentine
+  Retriever, same to take effect on my return from Sydney--or
+  before I sail, if you desire.  If I do not hear from you before
+  I sail I shall assume that it will be all right to quit when I
+  get back from Australia.
+
+  I will not be twenty-three years old until the Fourth of July.
+  I was afraid you wouldn't trust me with a big ship like the
+  Retriever if you knew; so I sent you a photograph I purchased
+  for fifty cents from the local photographer.  I guess that's
+  all--except that you couldn't find a better man to take my
+  place than Mr. Murphy.  He has had the experience.
+
+                                              Yours truly,
+                                                Matt Peasley.
+
+There were tears in his eyes as he dropped that letter into the mail
+box.  The Blue Star Navigation Company owned the Retriever,
+but--but--well she was Matt Peasley's ship and he loved her as men
+learn to love their homes.  It broke his heart to think of giving her
+up.
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy Ricks, "I've got a letter from the man Peasley
+at last; and now, by golly, I can quit and take a vacation.  Send in a
+stenographer."  The stenographer entered.  "Take telegram--direct
+message," he ordered, and commenced to dictate:
+
+  Captain Matthew Peasley,
+
+  Your resignation accepted.  You are too almighty good for a
+  windjammer, Matthew.  You need more room for the development of
+  your talent.  Give Murphy the ship, with my compliments, and
+  tell him I've enjoyed the fight because it went to a knock-out.
+  Report to me at this office as soon as possible.  You belong
+  in steam.  A second mate's berth waiting for you.  In a year
+  you will be first mate of steam; a year later you will be
+  master of steam, at two-fifty a month, and I will have a
+  four-million-foot freighter waiting for you if you make good.
+  The picture was a bully joke; but I could not laugh, Matt.  It
+  is so long since I was a boy.
+
+                                                    Cappy.
+
+"Send that right away, like a good girl," he ordered.  "He's about
+loaded and he may have towed out before the telegram reaches him.  Or,
+better still, send the message in duplicate--one copy to the mill and
+the other in care of the custom-house at Port Townsend.  He'll have to
+touch in there to clear the ship."
+
+He walked into Mr. Skinner's office.
+
+"Skinner," he said, "Murphy has the Retriever, and you're in charge of
+the shipping.  Attend to the transfer of authority before she gets out
+of the Sound."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MATT PEASLEY MEETS A TALKATIVE STRANGER
+
+
+Cappy Ricks' telegram to Matt, in care of the mill at Port Hadlock,
+arrived several hours after the Retriever, fully loaded with fir
+lumber, had been snatched away from the mill dock by a tug and started
+on her long tow to Dungeness, where the hawser would be cast off.  It
+was not until the vessel came to a brief anchorage in the strait off
+Port Townsend, the port of entry to Puget Sound, and Matt went ashore
+to clear his ship, that the duplicate telegram sent in care of the
+Collector of the Port, was handed to him.
+
+He read and reread it.  The news it contained seemed too good to be
+true.
+
+"I guess I won't clear her after all," he announced to the deputy
+collector.
+
+The official nodded.  "I didn't think you would," he replied.  "I have
+a telegram from the custom-house at San Francisco, apprising me that
+Michael J. Murphy has been appointed master of the Retriever, so if
+she's to be cleared Captain Murphy will have to do the job."
+
+"He's my mate, and if you'll wait about half an hour I'll go get the
+old Siwash," Matt replied happily, and started back to the Retriever
+in a hurry.  He had been gone less than twenty minutes, a fact noted
+by the astute Murphy, who met his superior at the rail as the latter
+climbed up the Jacob's ladder.
+
+"Why, you haven't cleared the old girl so soon, have you, sir?" he
+queried.
+
+"Read that," Matt announced dramatically.
+
+Mr. Murphy read the telegram.  "Bust my bob-stay!" he murmured.  "The
+dirty old assassin!  The slimy old pile-worm!  The blessed old duffer!
+After treating us like dogs for a year and a half he gives me the
+ship, sets you down for a two year apprenticeship in steam and says
+he's going to build you a four-million-foot freighter!  The
+scoundrelly old renegade!  Why, say, Matt, Cappy's been spilling the
+acid all over us and we never knew it.  Somehow, I have a notion that
+if we had yelled murder when he was beating us he'd have had us both
+out of his employ while you'd be saying Jack Robinson."
+
+"I believe you, Mike.  But he needn't think he's going to grab two
+years of my precious young life before he'll trust me with a steamer.
+I have an unlimited license for sail, and if I can pass the
+examination for steam before the inspectors--and I can--I'll get my
+license immediately.  Just consider the old boy's inconsistency, Mike.
+If a man can handle a square-rigged ship he ought to be trusted with
+anything; yet, when be gives me a steamer you'd think he was giving me
+a man's job!  Fair weather or foul, you stand on the bridge and
+control your vessel with the engine room telegraph.  Shucks!  I wonder
+if that crotchety old joker thinks it will take me two years to learn
+how to dock a steam schooner?"
+
+Mr. Murphy hitched his trousers, stuck his thumbs in his belt and
+glared at Matt Peasley.  "See here, you," he declared, "you're a child
+wonder, all right, but the trouble with you is, you hate yourself too
+much.  Listen to me, kid.  I'm the skipper of the Retriever now and
+you're my friend, young Matt Peasley, so I can talk to you as a
+friend.  You're a pretty skookum youth and I'd hate like everything to
+mix it with you, but if you start to veto the old man's orders you may
+look for a fine thrashing from me when I get back from Australia!  I
+won't have you making a damned fool of yourself, Matt.  If you are in
+command of a four-million-foot freighter by the time you're
+twenty-seven, you'll be the youngest skipper of steam afloat, and you
+ought to be down on your marrow bones giving thanks to the good Lord
+who has done so much for you, instead of planning insurrection against
+Cappy Ricks.  The idea!"
+
+"But what sense is there in waiting--"
+
+"When I refereed the scrap between you and All Hands And Feet you took
+my advice, didn't you?  You didn't say to me then: 'What sense is
+there in waiting?  Let me go in and finish the job and have done with
+it,' did you?"
+
+"But this is business, Mike.  For a year and a half Cappy has been
+having a whole lot of fun out of me--"
+
+"It might have been fun for him, but it came pretty near being the
+death of me," Mr. Murphy contradicted.  "If that jag of green hides
+from Antofagasta was a joke, beware of Cappy Ricks when he's serious.
+He's serious about you, Matt.  He's picked on you sight unseen, and
+he's going to do something for you.  He's an old man, Matt.  Let him
+have his way and you'll profit by it."
+
+"Well, I'll see what he has to say, at any rate," Matt compromised,
+and they went below, Matt to pack his sea chest and Mr. Murphy to
+shave and array himself in a manner befitting the master of a big
+barkentine about to present himself at the custom-house for the first
+time to clear his ship.
+
+An hour later Matt Peasley found himself sitting on his sea chest on
+the cap of the wharf, watching the Retriever slipping down the strait
+under command of Captain Michael J. Murphy, while a new chief mate,
+shipped in Port Townsend, counted off the watches.  Presently she
+turned a bend and was gone; and immediately he felt like a homeless
+wanderer.  The thought of the doughty Murphy in that snug little cabin
+so long sacred to Matt Peasley brought a pang of near jealousy to the
+late commander of the Retriever; as he reflected on the two years of
+toil ahead of him before men would again address him as Captain
+Peasley, he wondered whether the game really would be worth the
+candle; for he had all of a Down-Easter's love for a sailing ship.
+
+He recalled to mind Mr. Murphy's favorite story of the old sailing
+skipper who went into steam and who, during his very first watch on
+the steamship's bridge, ordered the man at the wheel to starboard his
+helm, and then forgot to tell him to steady it--the consequence being
+that the helmsman held hard-a-starboard and the ship commenced to
+describe a circle; whereupon the old sailing skipper got excited and
+screamed: "Back that main yard!"  Matt felt that should anything like
+that happen to him in steam and the news should ever leak out, he
+would have to go back to the Atlantic Coast rather than face the gibes
+of his shipmates on the Pacific.
+
+The passenger boat from Victoria picked him up and set him down in
+Seattle that night, and the following morning he boarded a train for
+San Francisco to report to Cappy Ricks.
+
+At luncheon in the dining car that day Matt Peasley found himself
+seated opposite a man who had boarded the train with him at Seattle.
+As the young captain plied his knife and fork he was aware that this
+person's gaze rested with something more than casual interest on
+his--Matt's--left forearm; whereupon the latter realized that his
+vis-a-vis yearned to see more of a little decoration which, in the
+pride of his first voyage, Matt had seen fit to have tattooed on the
+aforesaid forearm by the negro cook.  So, since he was the
+best-natured young man imaginable, Matt decided presently to satiate
+his neighbor's curiosity.
+
+"It's a lady climbing a ladder," he announced composedly and drew back
+his sleeve to reveal this sample of black art.  "I have a shield and
+an eagle on my breast and a bleeding heart, with a dagger stuck
+through it, on my right forearm."
+
+"I didn't mean to be rude," the other answered, flushing a little.  "I
+couldn't help noticing the chorus lady's shapely calves when you
+speared that last pickle; so I knew you were a sailor.  I concluded
+you were an American sailor before I learned that you advertise the
+fact on your breast, and I was wondering whether you belong in the
+navy or the merchant marine."
+
+"I'm from blue water," Matt replied pleasantly.  "You're in the
+shipping business, I take it."
+
+"Almost--I'm a ship, freight and marine insurance broker."  And the
+stranger handed over a calling card bearing the name of Mr. Allan
+Hayes.  "I'm from Seattle."
+
+"Peasley is my name, Mr. Hayes," Matt answered heartily, glad of this
+chance acquaintance with a man with whom he could converse on a
+subject of mutual interest.  "I haven't any post-office address," he
+added whimsically.
+
+"Going over to Columbia River to join your ship, I daresay," Mr. Hayes
+suggested.
+
+"No, sir.  I'm bound for San Francisco, to get a job in steam and work
+up to a captaincy."
+
+"Wherein you show commendable wisdom, Mr. Peasley," the broker
+answered.  "A man can get so far in a windjammer--a hundred a month in
+the little coasting schooners and a hundred and twenty-five in the big
+vessels running foreign--and there he sticks.  In steam schooners a
+good man can command two hundred dollars a month, with a chance for
+promotion into a big freighter, for the reason that in steam one has
+more opportunity to show the stuff that's in one."
+
+"How far are you going?" Matt demanded.
+
+"I'm bound for San Francisco too."
+
+"Good!" Matt replied, for, like most boys, he was a gregarious animal,
+and Mr. Hayes seemed to be a pleasant, affable gentleman.  "I suppose
+you know most of the steam vessels on this coast?" he continued,
+anxious to turn the conversation into channels that might be
+productive of information valuable to him in his new line of endeavor.
+
+Mr. Hayes nodded.  "I have to," he said, "if I'm to do any business
+negotiating charters; in fact, I'm bound to San Francisco now to
+charter two steamers."
+
+"Freight or passenger?"
+
+"Freight.  There's nothing for a broker in a passenger vessel.  I'm
+scouting for two boats for the Mannheim people.  You've heard of them,
+of course.  They own tremendous copper mines in Alaska, but they can't
+seem to get the right kind of flux to smelt their ore up there; so
+they're going to freight it down to their smelter in Tacoma."
+
+"I see.  But how do you work the game to pay your office rent?"
+
+"Why, that's very simple, Mr. Peasley.  Their traffic manager merely
+calls me up and tells me to find two ore freighters for him.  He
+doesn't know where to look for them, but he knows I do, and that it
+will not cost him anything to engage me to find them for him.  Well, I
+locate the vessels and when I come to terms with the owners, and those
+terms are satisfactory to my clients, I close the charter and the
+vessel owners pay me a commission of two and a half per cent. on all
+the freight money earned under the charter.  A shipowner generally is
+glad to pay a broker a commission for digging him up business for his
+ships--particularly when freights are dull."
+
+Matt Peasley nodded his comprehension and did some quick mental
+arithmetic.
+
+"Why, you'll make a nice little fee on those ore boats," he said.  "I
+suppose it's a time charter."
+
+"Four years," Mr. Hayes replied, and smiled fatly at the thought of
+his income.  "Of course I'd make a larger commission if the freight
+rate was figured on a tonnage basis; but on long charters, like these
+I mention, the ships are rented at a flat rate a day or month.  Say,
+for instance, I negotiate these charters at the rate of four hundred
+dollars a day, or eight hundred dollars a day for the two boats.  Two
+and a half per cent. of eight hundred dollars is twenty dollars a day,
+which I will earn as commission every day for the next four years that
+the vessels are not in dry dock or laid up for repairs."
+
+"And you probably will earn that by one day of labor," Matt Peasley
+murmured admiringly--"perhaps one hour of actual labor!"
+
+Mr. Hayes smiled again his fat smile.  He shrugged.
+
+"That's business," be said carelessly.  "An ounce of promotion is
+worth a ton of horse power."
+
+"Well, I should say so, Mr. Hayes!  But you'll have quite a search to
+find an ore boat on the Pacific Coast.  There are some coal boats
+running to Coos Bay, but they're hardly big enough; and then I suppose
+they're kept pretty busy in the coal trade, aren't they?  It seems to
+me that what you need for your business would be two of those big
+steel ore vessels, with their engines astern--the kind they use on the
+Great Lakes."
+
+"That is exactly why I am going to San Francisco, Mr. Peasley.  There
+are on this Coast two ships such as you describe--sister ships and
+just what the doctor ordered."
+
+"What are their names?"
+
+"The Lion and the Unicorn."
+
+Matt Peasley paused, with a forkful of provender halfway to his mouth.
+The S.S. Lion, eh?  Why, that was one of Cappy Ricks' vessels!  He
+remembered passing her off Cape Flattery once and seeing the Blue Star
+house flag fluttering at the fore.
+
+"Were they Lake boats originally?" he queried.
+
+Mr. Hayes nodded.
+
+"What are they doing out here?"
+
+"Right after the San Francisco fire, when fir lumber jumped from a
+twelve-dollar base to twenty-five, lumber freights soared
+accordingly," Hayes explained.  "Vessels that had been making a little
+money at four dollars a thousand feet, from Oregon and Washington
+ports to San Francisco, were enabled to get ten dollars; and anything
+that would float was hauled out of the bone yard and put to work.  Old
+Man Ricks, of the Blue Star Navigation Company, was the first to see
+the handwriting on the wall; so he sneaked East and bought the Lion
+and the Unicorn.  It was just the old cuss's luck to have a lot of
+cash on hand; and he bought them cheap, loaded them with general cargo
+in New York, and paid a nice dividend on them on their very first
+voyage under the Blue Star flag.  When he got them on the Coast he put
+them into the lumber trade and they paid for themselves within a year.
+
+"Then, just before the panic of 1907, old Ricks unloaded the Unicorn
+on the Black Butte Company for ten thousand dollars more than he paid
+for her--the old scamp!  He's the shrewdest trader on the whole
+Pacific Coast.  He had no sooner sawed the Unicorn off on the Black
+Butte people than the freight market collapsed in the general crash,
+and ever since then the owners of the Lion and the Unicorn have been
+stuck with their vessels.  They're so big it's next to impossible to
+keep them running coastwise in the lumber trade during a dull period,
+and they're not big enough for the foreign trade.  About the only
+thing they could do profitably was to freight coal, coal freights have
+dropped until the margin of profit is very meager; competition is keen
+and for the last six months the Lion and the Unicorn have been laid
+up."
+
+Matt Peasley smiled.
+
+"They'll be hungry for the business," he said, "and I'm sailor enough
+to see you'll be able to drive a bargain without much trouble."
+
+"I ought to get them pretty cheap," Mr. Hayes admitted.  "As you
+perhaps know, a vessel deteriorates faster when laid up than she does
+in active service; and an owner will do almost anything to keep her at
+sea, provided he can make a modest rate of interest on her cost price
+or present market value."
+
+"Naturally," Matt Peasley observed as they rose from the table.
+
+He purchased a cigar for Mr. Hayes, and as they retired to the buffet
+car to continue their acquaintance something whispered to Matt not to
+divulge to this somewhat garrulous stranger the news that he was a sea
+captain lately in the employ of the Blue Star Navigation Company and
+soon to enter that employ again.  He had learned enough to realize
+that Cappy's bank roll was threatened by this man from Seattle; that
+with his defenses leveled, as it were, the old gentleman would prove
+an easy victim unless warned of the impending attack.
+
+Therefore, since Matt had not sought Mr. Hayes' confidence nor
+accepted it under a pledge of secrecy, he decided that there could be
+nothing unethical in taking advantage of it.  Plainly the broker had
+jumped to the conclusion that Matt was a common sailor--above the
+average in point of intelligence, but so young and unsophisticated
+that one need not bother to be reserved or cautious in his presence.
+Some vague understanding of this had come to Matt Peasley; hence
+throughout the remainder of the journey his conversations with the
+broker bore on every other subject under heaven except ships and
+shipowners.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+FACE TO FACE
+
+
+In his private office Cappy Ricks sat on his spine, with his old legs
+on his desk and his head sunk forward on his breast.  His eyes were
+closed; to the casual observer he would have appeared to be dozing.
+Any one of his employees, however, would have known Cappy was merely
+thinking.  It was his habit to close his eyes and sit very still
+whenever he faced a tussle with a tough proposition.
+
+Presently an unmistakably feminine kiss, surreptitiously delivered,
+roused Cappy from his meditations.  He opened his eyes and beheld his
+daughter Florence, a radiant debutante of twenty, and the sole prop of
+her eccentric parent's declining years.
+
+"Daddy dear," she announced, "there's something wrong with my bank
+account.  I've just come from the Marine National Bank and they
+wouldn't cash my check."
+
+"Of course not," Cappy replied, beaming affectionately.  "They
+telephoned about five minutes ago that you're into the red again; so
+I've instructed Skinner to deposit five thousand to your credit."
+
+"Oh, but I want ten thousand!" she protested.
+
+"Can't have it, Florry!" he declared.  "The old limousine will have to
+do.  Go slow, my dear--go slow!  Why, they're offering random cargoes
+freely along the street for nine dollars.  Logs cost six dollars, with
+a dollar and a half to manufacture--that's seven and a half; and three
+and a half water freight added--that's eleven dollars.  Eleven-dollar
+lumber selling for nine dollars, and no business at that!  I haven't
+had a vessel dividend in six months--
+
+Mr. Skinner entered.
+
+"Mr. Ricks," he announced, "Captain Peasley, late of the Retriever, is
+in the outer office.  Shall I tell him to wait?"
+
+"No.  Haven't we been itching to see each other the past eighteen
+months?  Show him in immediately, Skinner."  Cappy turned to his
+daughter.  "I want to show you something my dear," he said; "something
+you're not likely to meet very often in your set--and that's a he-man.
+Do you remember hearing me tell the story of the mate that thrashed
+the big Swede skipper I sent to Cape Town to thrash him and bring the
+vessel home?"
+
+"Do you mean the captain that never writes letters?"
+
+"That's the man.  The fellow I've been having so much fun with--the
+Nervy Matt that tried to hornswoggle me with my own photograph.
+Passed it off as his own, Florry!  He hails from my old home town, and
+he's a mere boy--Come in!"
+
+The door opened to admit Matt Peasley; and as he paused just inside
+the entrance, slightly embarrassed at finding himself under the cool
+scrutiny of the trimmest, most dashing little craft he had ever seen,
+Miss Florry decided that her father was right.  Here, indeed, was a
+specimen of the genus Homo she had not hitherto seen.  Six feet three
+he was, straight from shoulder to hip, broad-chested and singularly
+well formed and graceful for such a big man.
+
+He wore stout shoes, without toe caps--rather old-fashioned footgear,
+Florry thought; but they were polished brightly.  A tailor-made,
+double-breasted blue serge suit, close-hauled and demoded; a soft
+white silk shirt, with non-detachable collar; a plain black silk
+four-in-hand tie, and a uniform cap, set a little back and to one side
+on thick, black, glossy, wavy hair, completed his attire.  He had his
+right hand in his trousers pocket; his left was on the doorknob.  He
+glanced from her to her father.
+
+"He's handsome," thought Florry.  "What a beautiful tan on his throat!
+He looks anything but the brute he is.  But he hasn't any manners.
+Oh, dear!  He stands there like a graven image."
+
+Matt Peasley's hand came out of his pocket; off came his cap and he
+bowed slightly.
+
+"I am Captain Peasley," he said.
+
+Cappy Ricks, leaning forward on the edge of his swivel chair, with
+head slightly bent, made a long appraisal of the young man over the
+rims of his spectacles.
+
+"Ahem!" he said.  "Huh!  Harumph!"  Ensued another terrible silence.
+Then: "Young scoundrel!" Cappy cried.  "Infernal young scoundrel!"
+
+"I accept the nomination," said Matt dryly.  "You'd never know me from
+my photograph, would you, sir?  I'd know you from yours, though--in a
+minute!"
+
+Miss Florry tittered audibly, thus drawing on herself the attention of
+the skipper, who was audacious enough to favor her with a solemn wink.
+
+"None of your jokes with me, sir!" said Cappy severely.
+
+"That's just what I say, sir; none of your jokes on me!  Those green
+hides were absolutely indecent."
+
+"Matt, you're a fresh young fellow," Cappy charged, struggling to
+suppress a smile.
+
+"And I was raised on salt water too," Matt added seriously.
+
+Cappy laughed.
+
+"You're a Thomaston Peasley," he declared, and shook hands.  "Ever
+hear of Ethan Peasley back there?"
+
+"He was my uncle, sir.  He was drowned at sea."
+
+"He was a boyhood chum of mine, Matt.  Permit me to present my
+daughter, Miss Florence."
+
+Miss Florence favored the captain with her most bewitching smile and
+nodded perkily.  Matt held out his great hand, not realizing that a
+bow and a conventional "Delighted, I'm sure!" was the correct thing in
+Florry's set.  Florry was about to accept his great paw when Cappy
+yelled:
+
+"Don't take it, Florry!  He'll squeeze your hand to jelly."
+
+"I won't," Matt declared, embarrassed.  "I might press it a little--"
+
+"I know.  You pressed mine a little, and if I live to be a thousand
+years old I'll never shake hands with you again."
+
+"I'll give her my finger then," Matt declared, and forthwith held out
+his index finger, which Florry shook gravely.
+
+"Well, well, boy; sit down, sit down," Cappy commanded briskly, "while
+I tell you the plans I have for your future.  I ought to have fired
+you long ago--"
+
+"I shall always be happy to testify that you tried hard enough," Matt
+interrupted, and Florry's silvery laugh filled the room.  Cappy
+winced, but had to join with her in the laugh on himself.
+
+"For the sake of your Uncle Ethan, and the fact that you're one of our
+own boys, Matt," he continued, "I'll retain you if you behave
+yourself.  As I believe I wired you, I'm going to put you in steam."
+
+"You didn't consult me about it, sir; but, to please you, I'll tackle
+steam.  I'm very grateful for your interest in me, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Huh!  That's not true, Matt.  You're not grateful; and if you are you
+have no business to be.  I paid you a hundred and twenty-five dollars
+a month to skipper the Retriever; you earned every cent of it and I
+made you fight for the job; so, no thanks to me.  And I know for a
+fact that you and Mr. Murphy cursed me up hill and down dale--"
+
+"Oh, Captain Peasley!" Miss Ricks interrupted.  "Did you curse my
+father?"
+
+"She's trying to fluster me," Matt thought.  "She thinks I'm a
+farmer."  Aloud he said: "Well, you see, Miss Ricks, I had to work for
+him.  However, Mr. Murphy and I have forgiven him.  We're both willing
+to let bygones be bygones."
+
+"Young scoundrel!" piped Cappy, delighted beyond measure, for he was
+used to unimaginative, rather dull skippers, who revered their berths
+and stood before him, hat in hand, plainly uncomfortable in the
+presence of the creator of the payroll.  "Dashed young scoundrel!
+Well, we had some fun anyhow, didn't we, Matt?  And, as the young
+fellows say, I got your Capricorn.  Very well, then.  We'll make a new
+start, Matthew; and if you pay attention to business it's barely
+possible you may amount to something yet.
+
+"I'm going to provide a berth for you, my boy, as second mate on the
+dirtiest, leakiest little bumboat you ever saw--our steam schooner
+Gualala.  She's a nautical disgrace and carries three hundred thousand
+feet of lumber--runs into the dogholes on the Mendocino Coast and
+takes in cargo on a trolley running from the top of the cliff to the
+masthead.  It'll be your job to get out in a small boat to pick up the
+moorings; and that'll be no picnic in the wintertime, because you lie
+just outside the edge of the breakers.  But you'll learn how to pick
+up moorings, Matt, and you'll learn how to turn a steamer round on her
+heels also."
+
+"I never did that kind of work before," Matt protested.  "I stand a
+good chance of getting drowned, don't I?"
+
+"Of course!  But better men than you do it; so don't kick.  In the
+spring I'll shift you to a larger boat; but I want you to have one
+winter along the Mendocino Coast.  It'll about break your heart, but
+it will do you an awful lot of good, Matt.  When you finish in the
+Gualala, you'll go in the Florence Ricks and run from Grays Harbor to
+San Pedro.  Then, when you get your first mate's license, I'll put you
+in our Tillicum, where you'll learn how to handle a big vessel; and by
+the time you get your master's license for steam you'll be ready to
+start for Philadelphia to bring out the finest freighter on this
+Coast.  How does that prospect strike you?"
+
+Matt's eyes glowed.  He forgot the two years' apprenticeship and
+thought only of the prize Cappy was dangling before him.
+
+"If faithful service will be a guaranty of my appreciation--" he
+began; but Cappy interrupted.
+
+"Nonsense!  Not another peep out of you.  You'd better take a little
+rest now for a couple of weeks and get your stomach in order after all
+that creosote.  Meantime, if you should need any money, Skinner will
+fix you up."
+
+"I'll not need any, thank you.  I saved sixteen hundred dollars while
+I was in the Retriever--"
+
+"Fine!  Good boy!" exclaimed Cappy, delighted beyond measure at this
+proof of Matt's Yankee thrift and sobriety.  "But don't save it, Matt.
+Invest it.  Put it in a mortgage for three years.  I know a captain
+now that wants to borrow a thousand dollars at eight per cent. to buy
+an interest in one of our vessels.  You shall loan it to him, Matt,
+and he'll secure you with the insurance.  Perfectly safe.  Guarantee
+it myself.  Bring your thousand dollars round in the morning, Matt.
+Understand?  No fooling now!  Make your money work for you.  You bet!
+If I'm not here tomorrow leave the money with Skinner."
+
+"Mr. Skinner is the general manager, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes, and a mighty clever one, too.  Don't you monkey with Skinner,
+young man.  He doesn't like you and he doesn't bluff worth a cent; and
+if you ever have a run-in with him while I'm away and he fires
+you--well, I guess I'd have to stand by Skinner, Matt.  I can't afford
+to lose him.  Cold-blooded dog--no sense of humor; but honest--a pig
+for work, and capable."
+
+"I'll be very careful, sir," Matt assured him.  "Thank you for the
+vacation, the promised job, and the chance to invest my thousand
+dollars at eight per cent.  And, now that my affairs are out of the
+way, let's talk about yours.  I think I can get you a four-year
+charter for your steamer Lion--"
+
+"Matt," said Cappy Ricks impressively, "if you can get that brute of a
+boat off my hands for four years, and at a figure that will pay me ten
+per cent. on her cost price, I'll tell you what--I'll pay you a
+commission."
+
+"I don't want any commission, sir, for working for the interests of my
+employer.  What do you reckon it costs a day to operate the Lion?"
+
+Cappy drew a scratch pad toward him and commenced to figure.
+
+"She'll burn a hundred and seventy barrels of crude oil a day, at
+sixty-five cents a barrel.  That's about a hundred and ten dollars.
+Her wages will average seventy-five dollars a day; it costs twenty
+dollars a day to feed her crew; incidentals, say twenty dollars a day;
+insurance, say, four dollars a day; wireless, three and a half
+dollars; depreciation, say, two dollars and seventy-five cents a day;
+total in round figures two hundred and thirty-five dollars a day.  I
+ought to get four hundred dollars a day for her; but in a pinch like
+the present I'd be glad to get her off my hands at three hundred and
+fifty dollars.  But, no matter what the price may be, Matt, I'm afraid
+we can't charter her."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because the Black Butte Lumber Company owns her sister, the Unicorn;
+she's a burden on their back, as the Lion is on mine, there's war to
+the finish between Hudner, the Black Butte manager, and myself, and
+he'll get the business.  He's a dog, Matt--always cutting prices below
+the profit point and raising hob in the market.  Infernal marplot!  He
+stole the best stenographer in the United States from me here about
+three years ago."
+
+"Where is Hudner's office?" Matt queried.
+
+"In this building--sixth floor."  Matt rose and started for the door.
+"Where are you going now, Matt?" Cappy piped.
+
+"Why, you say the Unicorn will compete against the Lion for this
+charter I have in mind.  That is true enough.  I know the Black Butte
+Lumber Company will be approached for the Unicorn; so I'm going to get
+the Unicorn out of the way and give you a clear field with the Lion.
+I figured it all out coming down on the train."  And, without waiting
+to listen to Cappy's protestations, Matt left the office.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+BUSINESS AND--
+
+
+Three minutes later he was closeted with Hudner, of the Black Butte
+Lumber Company.
+
+"My name is Peasley, Mr. Hudner," he began truthfully.  "I arrived
+from Seattle this morning.  I am looking for a steam freighter for
+some very responsible people and your Unicorn appears to be about the
+vessel they're looking for.  They would want her to run coastwise, and
+prefer to charter at a flat rate a day, owners to pay all expenses of
+operating the ship.  Would you be willing to charter for sixty days,
+with an option on the vessel for an extension of the charter on the
+same terms for four years, provided she proves satisfactory for my
+clients' purposes?"
+
+Mr. Hudner started slightly.  Four years!  It seemed almost too good
+to be true.  He was certain of this the next instant when he thought
+of Cappy Ricks' Lion, also laid up and as hungry for business as the
+Unicorn.  He wondered whether this young broker from Seattle had
+called on Cappy Ricks as yet; and, wondering, he decided to name a
+price low enough to prove interesting and, by closing promptly,
+eliminate his hated competitor from all consideration.
+
+"I should be very glad to consider your proposition, Mr. Peasley," he
+said.  "You say your clients are entirely responsible?"
+
+"They will post a bond if you're not satisfied on that point, Mr.
+Hudner.  What will you charter the Unicorn for, a day?"
+
+Mr. Hudner pretended to do a deal of figuring.  At the end of five
+minutes he said: "Three hundred and fifty dollars a day, net to the
+vessel."
+
+Matt nodded, rose and reached for his hat.
+
+"I guess you don't want to charter your vessel, sir," he said.  "I'm
+not working for my health, either; so I guess I'll look for some other
+vessel.  I hear the Lion is on the market."  And without further ado
+he walked out.
+
+Mr. Hudner let him go; then ran after him and cornered him in the
+hall.
+
+"I'll let you have her at three hundred and thirty," he said
+desperately; "and that's bedrock.  And if your clients elect to take
+her for four years, I'll pay you a thousand dollars commission on the
+deal. The vessel simply cannot afford to pay more."
+
+After his conversation with Cappy Ricks, Matt realized that Hudner
+had, indeed, named a very low price on the Unicorn.  But Matt was a
+Yankee. He knew he had Hudner where the hair was short; so he said:
+
+"I'll give you three twenty-five and accept a thousand dollars
+commission in case my clients take her for four years.  That's my
+final offer, Mr. Hudner.  Take it or leave it."
+
+"I'll take it," said poor Hudner.  "It's better than letting the
+vessel fall to pieces in Rotten Row.  How soon will you hear
+definitely from your principals?"
+
+"I'll hear to-day; but meantime you might give me a three-day option
+on the vessel, in case of unavoidable delays--though I'll do my best
+to close the matter up at once."
+
+Hudner considered.  The Unicorn had paid his company but two dividends
+since her purchase from Cappy Ricks, while it was common talk on
+'Change that the Lion had paid for herself prior to the 1907 panic.
+In consideration of the fact, therefore, that the Lion did not owe
+Cappy Ricks a cent, Hudner shrewdly judged that Cappy would be less
+eager than he for business, and that hence it would be safe to give a
+three-day option.  He led Matt back to his office, where he dictated
+and signed the option.  Matt gave him a dollar and the trap was set.
+
+From Hudner's office Matt returned to that of Cappy Ricks.  The heir
+to the Ricks millions was still there, as Matt noted with a sudden,
+strange thrill of satisfaction.
+
+"I've waited until your return, Captain Peasley," she said, "to see
+whether you could dispose of dad's competitor as handily as you
+disposed of your own that time in Cape Town."
+
+Matt blushed and Cappy chuckled.
+
+"I've bet Florry five thousand dollars you'll dispose of Hudner and
+the Unicorn, Matt," he said.
+
+"I'm glad of that, sir, because if you hope to win the bet you'll have
+to help me.  I've gone as far as I can, sir.  I've got an option on
+the Unicorn for three days on a sixty-day charter, running coastwise
+with general cargo, with the privilege of renewing for four years at
+the same rate.  The rate, by the way, is three hundred and twenty-five
+dollars. I want you to charter her from Hudner; and then--"
+
+"Bless your soul, boy, I don't want her!  Haven't I got a boat of my
+own I'd almost be willing to charter at the same figure to Hudner?"
+
+"You don't understand, sir.  The Mannheim people, with copper mines in
+Alaska, want two boats to freight ore--and their agent came down on
+the train with me.  Don't you see, sir, that you have to control both
+boats to get a price?  If you don't that agent will play you against
+Hudner and Hudner against you, until he succeeds in tying up both
+boats at a low price.  He wouldn't tell you he wants two boats, but he
+was fool enough to tell me--"
+
+"God bless my mildewed soul!" said Cappy excitedly, and smashed his
+old fist down on his desk.  "For the man to do things, give me the lad
+who keeps his ears open and his mouth shut!  Of course we'll charter
+her; and, what's more, we'll give her business ourselves for sixty
+days just to keep her off the market!"
+
+"Then you'd better hurry and close the deal, sir," Matt warned him.
+"I only arrived in town this morning; and I checked my baggage at the
+depot and came up here immediately.  The Seattle broker went up to his
+hotel. He said he had to have a bath and a shave and some clean linen
+first thing," he added scornfully: "Me, I'd swim Channel Creek at low
+tide in a dress suit if I had important business on the other side."
+
+"Matt," said Cappy gratefully, "you're a boy after my own heart.
+Really, I think you ought to get something out of this if we put it
+through."
+
+"Well, as I stated, I wouldn't take anything out of the Lion charter,
+because it's my duty to save you when somebody has a gun at your head;
+but on the Unicorn charter I thought--well, if you can recharter at a
+profit I thought you might agree to split the profit with me.  I'm a
+skipper, you know, and this sort of thing is out of my regular line;
+and besides, I'm not on your pay roll at present.  I've promoted the
+deal, so to speak.  I supply the ship and the brains and the valuable
+information, and you supply business for the ship."
+
+"Yes; and, in spite of the hard times, I'll supply it at a profit if I
+have to," Cappy declared happily.  "Of course I'll split the profit
+with you, Matt.  As you say, this Unicorn deal is outside your regular
+line. It's a private deal; and as the promoter of it you're entitled
+to your legitimate profit."  He rang for Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Skinner, my boy," he said when that functionary entered, "Matt and I
+are going to unload that white elephant of a Lion and get her off our
+hands for four years at a fancy figure; but to do it we've got to
+charter another white elephant--the Black Butte Lumber Company's
+Unicorn.  Here's an option Captain Peasley has just secured on her.
+Have the charter parties made out immediately in conformity with this
+option and bring them here for my signature."
+
+Mr. Skinner read the option and began to protest.
+
+"Mr. Ricks, I tell you we cannot possibly use the Unicorn for sixty
+days, if you are forced to keep her off the market that long.  If this
+thing develops into a waiting game--"
+
+"I'll wear the other side out," Cappy finished for him.  "Listen to
+me, Skinner!  How's the shingle market in the Southwest?"
+
+"The market is steady at three dollars and fifty cents, f.o.b.
+Missouri River common points."
+
+Cappy scratched his ear and cogitated.
+
+"The Unicorn will carry eighteen million shingles," he murmured.  "The
+going water freight from Grays Harbor to San Francisco is how much?"
+
+"Thirty-five cents a thousand," Mr. Skinner replied promptly.
+
+"Therefore, if we used one of our own vessels to freight eighteen
+million shingles it would cost us--"
+
+"Six thousand three hundred dollars," prompted Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Fortunately for us, however, we do not use one of our own vessels.
+We use that fellow Hudner's and we get her for three hundred and
+twenty-five dollars a day.  She can sail from here to Grays Harbor,
+take on her cargo, get back to San Francisco and discharge it in
+twelve days.  What's twelve times three hundred and twenty-five?"
+
+"Thirty-nine hundred dollars," flashed Skinner, to the tremendous
+admiration of Matt Peasley, who now considered the manager an
+intellectual marvel.
+
+"Being a saving of how much?" Cappy droned on.
+
+"Twenty-four hundred dollars," answered the efficient human machine
+without seeming to think for an instant.
+
+"Being a saving of how many cents on a thousand shingles?"
+
+Mr. Skinner closed one eye, cocked the other at the ceiling an instant
+and said:
+
+"Thirteen and one-third cents a thousand."
+
+"Very well, then, Skinner.  Now listen to my instructions: Wire all
+the best shingle mills on Grays Harbor for quotations on Extra Star A
+Stars in one to five million lots, delivery fifteen, thirty and
+forty-five days from date; and if the price is right buy 'em all.  We
+have about ten millions on hand at our own mill.  To-night send out a
+flock of night letters to all the wholesale jobbers and brokers in
+Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and all points taking a sixty-cent
+tariff, and quote 'em ten cents under the market subject to prior
+acceptance."
+
+He turned to Matt Peasley.
+
+"That clause--'subject to prior acceptance'--saves our faces in case
+we find ourselves unable to deliver the goods," he explained, and
+turned again to Skinner.
+
+"We can freight the shingles from Grays Harbor to San Francisco in the
+Unicorn; re-ship on cars from Long Wharf and beat the direct car
+shipments from the mills ten cents, and still make our regular profit.
+Besides, the cut in price will bring us in a raft of orders we could
+not get otherwise.  We can thus keep the Unicorn busy for sixty days
+without losing a cent on her, and if we haven't come to terms with the
+Mannheim people at the end of that time we'll find something else for
+her.  And, of course, if we succeed meantime in chartering the Lion at
+a satisfactory price, we can throw the Unicorn back on Hudner at the
+end of the sixty days."  And Cappy snickered malevolently as he
+pictured his enemy's discomfiture under these circumstances.
+
+Mr. Skinner nodded his comprehension and hastened away to prepare the
+charter parties.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE CLEAN UP
+
+
+Hudner, manager of the Black Butte Lumber Company, arched his eyebrows
+as Matt Peasley entered his office half an hour after he had left it
+and presented for Hudner's signature a formal charter party, in
+duplicate, wherein the Blue Star Navigation Company chartered from J.
+B. Hudner, managing owner of record, the American Steamer Unicorn for
+sixty days from date, at the rate of three hundred and twenty-five
+dollars a day, said managing owner to pay all expenses of operating
+said Unicorn.
+
+"Huh!" Mr. Hudner snorted.  "I'd like to know what the devil Cappy
+Ricks wants of my Unicorn when he's got her infernal sister squatting
+in the mud of Oakland Creek?  There's something rotten in Denmark, Mr.
+Peasley.  There always is when that old scoundrel Ricks does
+incomprehensible things."
+
+"Very likely he's up to some skullduggery, sir," Matt opined.
+
+"I wish you had informed me of the identity of your client, Mr.
+Peasley," Hudner complained.  "I don't like to sign this charter."
+
+"I cannot help that now, sir," Matt retorted.  "You have agreed in
+writing to charter the vessel to any responsible person I might bring
+to you, and I guess the Blue Star Navigation Company comes under that
+head."
+
+Mr. Hudner sighed and gritted his teeth.  Instinct told him there was
+deviltry afoot, but in an evil moment he had sewed himself up and he
+had no alternative now save to complete the contract or stand suit.
+So he signed the charter party and retained the original, while Matt
+Peasley, with the duplicate in his pocket, hastened back to Cappy
+Ricks' office.
+
+"Matt," said Cappy approvingly, "you're a born business man, and it
+will be strange indeed if you don't pick up a nice little piece of
+money on this Unicorn deal."  He glanced at his watch and then turned
+to his daughter.
+
+"Florry, my dear," he said, "would you like to go up-town with your
+daddy and Captain Peasley for luncheon?"
+
+Matt Peasley grinned like a Jack-o'-lantern, all lit up for
+Hallowe'en.
+
+"Fine!" he said enthusiastically.
+
+Florence withered him with one impersonal glance, saw that she had
+destroyed him utterly, relented, and graciously acquiesced.  When they
+left the office Matt Peasley was stepping high, like a ten-time
+winner, for he had suddenly made the discovery that life ashore was a
+wonderful, wonderful thing.  There was such a lilt in his young heart
+that, for the life of him, he could not forbear doing a little double
+shuffle as he waited at the elevator with Cappy and his daughter.  He
+sang:
+
+  "The first mate's boat was the first away;
+     But the whale gave a flip of his tail,
+   And down to the bottom went five brave boys,
+     Never again to sail--
+       Brave boys,
+     Never again to sail!
+
+   When the captain heard of the loss of his whale,
+     Right loud-lee then he swore.
+   When he heard of the loss of his five brave boys,
+     'Oh,' he said, 'we can ship some more brave boys--
+   'Oh,' he said, 'we can ship some more.'"
+
+Cappy winked slyly at his daughter, but she did not see the wink.  She
+had eyes for nobody but Matt Peasley, for he was a brand-new note in
+her life.  They were half through luncheon before Florry discovered
+the exact nature of this fascinating new note.  Matt Peasley was real.
+There was not an artificial thought or action in his scheme of things;
+he bubbled with homely Yankee wit; he was intensely democratic and
+ramping with youth and health and strength and the joy of living; he
+could sing funny little songs and tell funny little stories about
+funny little adventures that had befallen him.  She liked him.
+
+After luncheon Cappy declared that Matt should return to the office
+with him, while Florry instructed the waiter to ring for a taxicab for
+her. Later, when Matt gallantly handed her into the taxi, he asked
+innocently:
+
+"Where are you going, Miss Florry?"
+
+"Home," she said.
+
+He looked at her so wistfully that she could not mistake the hidden
+meaning in his words when he asked, with a deprecatory grin:
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"With my father," she said, and closed the door.
+
+When Cappy and Matt returned to the Blue Star offices they were
+informed that Mr. Allan Hayes was patiently awaiting the arrival of
+the managing owner of the Lion.  Matt concluded, therefore, to remain
+secluded while Cappy went into his own office and met Mr. Hayes.
+
+Two hours later Cappy summoned Skinner and Matt to his sanctum.
+
+"Skinner," he said briskly, "have you bought any shingles?"
+
+"I have not," said Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Have you sent out those telegrams to the dealers?"
+
+"Not yet, Mr. Ricks.  I was going to have them filed just before we
+close the office."
+
+"Well," said Cappy smilingly, "don't accept any quotations until
+to-morrow and don't send out those telegrams until further advice from
+me.  I locked horns with that man Hayes, and I think I gored him,
+Matt. It appeared he called on me first; and when I quoted him four
+hundred dollars a day on the Lion, he favored me with a sweet smile
+and said he could get the Unicorn for three-fifty.  So, of course, I
+had to explain to him that he couldn't, because I wouldn't charter her
+at any such ridiculous figure!  That took the ginger out of him and we
+got down to business, with the result that I've given him a
+forty-eight-hour option on both boats at four hundred dollars a day
+each, with a commission of two thousand dollars cash in full to him."
+
+"Why, he told me he would get two and a half per cent. commission!"
+Matt declared.  "He figured he'd have an income of twenty dollars a
+day for the next four years."
+
+"I daresay he did, Matt," Cappy replied dryly; "but then, in the very
+best business circles you never pay a broker two and a half commission
+when you know who his principals are!  If he insists, you eliminate
+him entirely and do business direct.  Of course, my boy, if he had put
+the proposition up to me, and I had agreed to pay him the regular
+commission while ignorant of the identity of his principals, and he
+had then reposed confidence in my business honor and told me whom he
+represented, he would have been perfectly safe.  Remember, Matt, that
+the business man without a code of business honor never stays in
+business very long. From the office to the penitentiary or the
+cemetery is a quick jump for birds of that feather."
+
+"Then, why did you offer him two thousand dollars?"'
+
+"Because it never pays to be a hog, my son, and besides I want to
+close this deal and close it quickly.  Naturally Hayes isn't fool
+enough to toss away two thousand dollars, and something seems to tell
+me he'll urge his principals to take the boats at our figure,
+Matthew!"  And the graceless old villain chuckled and dug his youngest
+skipper in the short ribs.  "Let this be a lesson to you, my boy," he
+warned him.  "Remember the old Persian proverb: 'A shut mouth catches
+no flies.'"
+
+Cappy's prediction proved to be correct, for the following morning
+Hayes telephoned that the Mannheim people desired the steamers at
+Cappy's figures, the charter parties, signed by Cappy, were forwarded
+to Seattle, and in due course were returned signed by the charterers;
+whereupon Cappy exercised his option, procured by Matt from Hudner, to
+charter the Unicorn for four years additional.
+
+"What did Hudner have to say for himself?" Cappy queried when Matt
+returned from the latter's office, after finally completing the deal.
+
+"Not a word!  He looked volumes, though, sir."
+
+"Serves him right.  That man, sir, is a thorn in the side of the
+market.  However, since we're making a daily profit on him we can
+afford to speak kindly of the unfortunate fellow, Matt; so sit down
+and we'll figure out where we stand on the Unicorn.  She costs us
+three-twenty-five and we've chartered her at four hundred--a daily
+profit of seventy-five dollars, of which you receive thirty-seven
+dollars and fifty cents.  That makes eleven hundred and twenty-five
+dollars monthly income for you, my boy; and, believe me, it isn't to
+be sneezed at.  Meantime you and I, as partners, owe me a thousand
+dollars commission to that Seattle broker; so I'll have Skinner make a
+journal entry and charge your account five hundred dollars.  There's
+no need to pay it now, Matt.  Wait until the vessel earns it."
+
+"The vessel might sink on her first voyage and that would cancel the
+charter," Matt replied; "so I guess I'll be a sport and hold up my
+end. You paid out the hard cash and took a chance, and so will I."
+And, with the words, Matt drew from his pocket the Black Butte Lumber
+Company's check for a thousand dollars, indorsed it and passed it over
+to Cappy Ricks.  "We're equal partners, sir," he said, "and I pried
+that thousand out of Hudner on the side as a commission for chartering
+the Unicorn to you.  Half of it is yours and I owe you the other half;
+so there you are."
+
+Cappy Ricks threw up his hands in token of complete surrender.
+
+"Scoundrel!" he cried.  "Damned young scoundrel!  You Yankee thief,
+haven't you any conscience?"  And he laid his old head on his desk and
+laughed his shrill, senile laugh, while tears of joy rolled down his
+rosy old cheeks.  "Oh-h-h-h, my!" he cackled.  "But wait until I get
+Hudner among my young friends at the Round Table up at the Commercial
+Club to-morrow!  To think of a young pup like you coming in and
+chasing an old dog like Hudner round the lot and taking his bone away
+from him!"
+
+He turned to the general manager:
+
+"Oh, Skinner!  Skinner, my dear boy, this will be the death of me yet!
+Remember that old maid stenographer Hudner stole away from us,
+Skinner? Remember?  Oh, but isn't he paying for her through the nose?
+Isn't he, Skinner?  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear, what a lot of fun there is in
+just living and raising hell with your neighbor--particularly,
+Skinner, when he happens to be a competitor."
+
+When Cappy could control his mirth he handed the money back to Matt.
+
+"Oh, Matt, my dear young bandit," he informed that amazed young man,
+"I'm human.  I can't take this money.  It's been worth a thousand
+dollars to have had this laugh and to know I've got a lad like you
+growing up in my employ.  You're worth a bonus, Matt; I'll stand all
+the commission.  Soak Hudner's thousand away in the bank, Matt; or,
+better still--Here!  Here; let's figure, Matt:  You had sixteen
+hundred saved up and you've loaned a thousand on that mortgage.  Now
+you've made a thousand more.  Better buy a good thousand-dollar
+municipal bond, Matt. That's better than savings-bank interest, and
+you can always realize on the bond.  I'll buy the bond for you."
+
+"Thank you, sir," Matt replied.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+CAPPY PROVES HIMSELF A DESPOT
+
+
+Cappy Ricks lay back in his swivel chair, his feet on his desk and his
+eyes closed.  He was thinking deeply, for he had something to think
+about.  Coming in from his club the night before he had observed that
+Florry was entertaining company in the billiard room, as the crash of
+pool balls testified.  He had scarcely reached his room on the second
+floor, however, when the pool game came to an end and he heard voices
+in the drawing room, followed presently by a few random chords struck
+on the piano, and a resonant baritone was raised in the strangest song
+ever heard in that drawing room--a deep-sea chantey.
+
+Cappy was no great shakes on music, but before he had listened to the
+first verse of Rolling Home he knew Captain Matt Peasley for the
+singer and suspected his daughter of faking the accompaniment.  He
+listened at the head of the stairs and presently was treated to a
+rendition of a lilting little Swedish ballad, followed by one or two
+selections from the Grand Banks and the doleful song of the Ferocious
+Whale and the Five Brave Boys.  Then he heard Florry laugh happily.
+
+Cappy was thinking of the curious inflection in that laugh now.  Once
+before he had heard it--when he courted Florry's dead mother; and his
+old heart swelled a little with pain at the remembrance.  He was
+wondering just what to do about that laugh when Matt was announced.
+
+"Show him in," said Cappy; and Matt Peasley entered.
+
+"Sit down, Matt," said Cappy kindly.  "Yes, I sent for you.  The
+Gualala will be in to-morrow and you've had a fine two-weeks'
+vacation.  What's more, I think you've enjoyed it, Matt, and I'm glad
+you did; but now it's time to get down to business again.  I wanted to
+tell you that the skipper of the Gualala will expect you to be aboard
+at seven o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+Matt studied the pattern of the office rug a minute and then faced
+Cappy bravely.
+
+"I'm obliged to you, Mr. Ricks, more than I can say; but the fact of
+the matter is I've changed my mind about going to sea again.  It's a
+dog's life, sir, and I'm tired of it."
+
+"Tired at twenty-three?" said Cappy gently.
+
+Matt flushed a little.
+
+"Well, it does appear to me kind of foolish for a man with an income
+of more than eleven hundred dollars a month to be going to sea as
+second mate of a dirty little steam schooner at seventy-five dollars a
+month."
+
+"Well, I can hardly blame you," said Cappy gently.  "I suppose I'd
+feel the same way about it myself if I stood in your shoes."
+
+"I'm sure you would," Matt replied.
+
+Fell a silence, broken presently by Cappy's:
+
+"Huh!  Ahem!  Harump!"  Then:  "When I came in from my club last
+night, Matt, I believe Florry had a caller."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Matt; "I was there."
+
+"Huh!  I got a squint at you.  Am I mistaken in assuming that you were
+wearing a dress suit?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Whadja mean by wasting your savings on a dress suit?" Cappy exploded.
+"Whadja mean by courting my Florry, eh?  Tell me that!  Give you an
+inch and you'll take an ell!  Infernal young scoundrel!"
+
+"Well," said Matt humbly, "I intended to speak to you about Miss
+Florry.  Of course now that I'm going to live ashore--"
+
+"What can a big lubber like you do ashore?" Cappy shrilled.
+
+"Why, I might get a job with some shipping firm--"
+
+"You needn't count on a job ashore with the Blue Star Navigation
+Company," Cappy railed.  "You needn't think--"
+
+"Have I your permission to call on Miss Florry again?" Matt asked
+humbly.
+
+"No!" thundered Cappy.  "You're as nervy as they make 'em!  No, sir!
+You'll go to sea in the Gualala to-morrow morning--d'ye hear?  That's
+what you'll do!"
+
+But Matt Peasley shook his head.
+
+"I'm through with the sea," he said firmly.  "I have an income of
+eleven hundred dollars a month--"
+
+"0h, is that so?" Cappy sneered.  "Well, for the sake of argument,
+we'll admit you have the income.  We don't know how long you'll have
+it; but we'll credit your account on the books while we're able to
+collect it from the charterers, and I guess we'll collect it while the
+Unicorn is afloat.  But having an income and being able to spend it,
+my boy, are two different things; so in order to set your mind at
+ease, let me tell you something:  I'm not going to give you a cent out
+of that charter deal--"
+
+Matt Peasley sprang up, his big body aquiver with rage.
+
+"You'd double-cross me!" he roared.  "Mr. Ricks, if you weren't--"  He
+paused.
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Cappy, undaunted.  "I know what you're going to
+say. If I wasn't an old man I'd let you make a jolly jackanapes of
+yourself. Now listen to me!  I said I wasn't going to let you have a
+cent out of that charter deal--and I mean it.  If you couldn't say
+Boo! from now until the day you finger a dollar of that income you'd
+be as dumb as an oyster by the time I hand you the check.  What do you
+know about money?" he piped shrilly.  "You big, overgrown baby!  Yah!
+You've had a little taste of business and turned a neat deal, and now
+you think you're a wonder, don't you?  Like everybody else, you'll
+keep on thinking it until some smart fellow takes it all away from you
+again; so, in order to cure you, I'm not going to let you have it!"
+
+"I'll sue you--"
+
+"You can sue your head off, young man, and see how much good it will
+do you.  You surrendered to me your option that Hudner gave you on the
+Unicorn, and you failed to procure from me in writing an understanding
+of the agreement between us regarding this split.  You haven't a leg
+to stand on!"
+
+Matt Peasley hung his head.
+
+"I didn't think I had to take business precautions with you, sir," he
+said.
+
+"You should take business precautions with anybody and everybody."
+
+"I thought I was dealing with a man of honor.  Everybody has always
+told me that Cappy Ricks'--"
+
+"How dare you call me Cappy?"
+
+"--word was as good as his bond."
+
+"And so it is, my boy.  You'll get your money, but you'll wait for it;
+and meantime I'll invest it for you.  As I said before, you've had a
+taste of business and found it pretty sweet--so sweet, in fact, that
+you think you're a business man.  Well, hereafter you'll remember,
+when you're making a contract with anybody, to get it down in black
+and white; and then you'll have something to fight about if you're not
+satisfied.  Now, by the time you're skipper of steam you'll be worth a
+nice little pile of money; you can buy a piece of the big freighter
+I'm going to build for you and it'll pay you thirty per cent.
+Remember, Matt, I always make my skippers own a piece of the vessel
+they command. That gives 'em an interest in their job and they don't
+waste their owner's money."
+
+"I won't be dictated to!" Matt cried desperately.  "I'm free, white
+and--"
+
+"Twenty-three!" jeered Cappy.  "You big, awkward pup!  How dare you
+growl at me!  I know what's good for you.  You go to sea on the
+Gualala."
+
+"I must decline--"
+
+"Oh, all right!  Have it your own way," said Cappy.  "But, at the rate
+you've been blowing your money in on Florry for the past two weeks,
+I'll bet your wad has dwindled since you struck town.  I've put that
+thousand dollars out on mortgage for you, and Skinner has the mortgage
+in the company safe, where you can't get at it to hock it when your
+last dollar is gone.  And he has the bond there too; so it does appear
+to me, Matt, that if you want any money to spend you'll have to get a
+job and earn it.  I have the bulge on you, young fellow, and don't you
+forget it!"
+
+Matt Peasley rose, walked to the window and stood looking down into
+California Street.  He was so mad there were tears in his eyes, and he
+longed to say things to Cappy Ricks--only, for the sake of Miss
+Florence Ricks, he could not abuse her sire.  Once he half turned,
+only to meet Cappy's glittering eyes fixed on him with a steadiness of
+purpose that argued only too well the fact that the old man could not
+be bluffed, cajoled, bribed or impressed.
+
+Presently Matt Peasley turned from the window.
+
+"Where does the Gualala lie, sir?" he asked gruffly.
+
+"Howard Street Wharf, Number One, Matt," Cappy replied cheerfully.  "I
+think she had bedbugs in her cabin, but I'm not sure.  I wouldn't go
+within a block of her myself."
+
+Matt gazed sorrowfully at the rug.  Too well he realized that Cappy
+had the whip hand and was fully capable of cracking the whip; so
+presently he said:
+
+"Well, I've met bedbugs before, Mr. Ricks.  I'll go aboard in the
+morning."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it, Matt.  And another thing:  I like you, Matt, but
+not well enough for a son-in-law.  Remember, my boy, you're only a
+sailor on a steam schooner now--so it won't be necessary for you to
+look aloft.  You understand, do you not?  You want to remember your
+position, my boy."
+
+Matt turned and bent upon Cappy a slow, smoldering gaze.  Cappy almost
+quivered.  Then slowly the rage died out in Matt Peasley's fine eyes
+and a lilting, boyish grin spread over his face, for he was one of
+those rare human beings who can smile, no matter what the prospect,
+once he has definitely committed himself to a definite course of
+action.  Only the years of discipline and his innate respect for gray
+hairs kept him from bluntly informing Cappy Ricks that he might
+forthwith proceed to chase himself!  Instead he said quietly:
+
+"Very well, sir.  Good afternoon."
+
+"Good afternoon, sir," snapped Cappy.
+
+At the door Matt paused an instant, for he was young and he could not
+retire without firing a shot.  He fired it now with his eyes--a glance
+of cool disdain and defiance that would have been worth a dollar of
+anybody's money to see.  Cappy had to do something to keep from
+laughing.
+
+"Out, you rebel!" he yelled.  The door closed with a crash, and Cappy
+Ricks took down the telephone receiver and called up his daughter.
+
+"Florry," he said gently, "I want to tell you something."
+
+"Fire away, Pop!" she challenged.
+
+"It's about that fellow Peasley," Cappy replied coldly.  "I wish you
+wouldn't have that big, awkward dub calling at the house, Florry.
+He'll fall over the furniture the first thing you know, and do some
+damage.  I think a lot of him as a sailor, but that's about as far as
+my affection extends; and if you insist on having him call at the
+house, my dear, my authority over him as an employee will suffer and
+I'll be forced to fire the fellow.  Of course I realize what a
+pleasant boy he is; but then you don't know sailors like I do.
+They're a low lot at heart, Florry, and this fellow Peasley is no
+exception to the general rule."
+
+Cappy paused to test the effect of this broadside.  There was a little
+gasp from the other end of the wire; then a click as his daughter hung
+up, too outraged to reply.
+
+Cappy's kindly eyes twinkled merrily as he replaced the receiver on
+the hook.
+
+"What a skookum son-in-law to take up the business when I let go!" he
+murmured happily.  "Oh, Matt, I'm so blamed sorry for you; but it's
+just got to be done.  If you're going to build up the Blue Star
+Navigation Company after the Panama Canal is opened for business,
+you've got to know shipping; and to know it from center to
+circumference.  It isn't sufficient that you be master of sail and
+steam, any ocean, any tonnage.  You've got to learn the business from
+the rules as promulgated by little old Alden P. Ricks, the slave
+driver.  There's hope for you, sonny.  You have already learned to
+obey."
+
+Mr. Skinner bustled in with the mail.
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy plaintively, "what's the best way to drive
+obstinate people south?"
+
+"Head them north," said Mr. Skinner.
+
+"I'm doing it," said Cappy dreamily.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+MATT PEASLEY IN EXILE
+
+
+From Cappy Ricks' office Matt Peasley went to the rooms of the
+American Shipmaster's Association, entered the telephone booth and
+called up Florence Ricks.  From the instant he first laid eyes on her,
+Miss Florry had occupied practically all of Matt's thoughts during
+every waking hour.  He had assayed her and appraised her a hundred
+times and from every possible angle, and each time he decided that
+Florry was possessed of more than sufficient charm, good looks,
+sweetness and intelligence to suit the most exacting.  Matt wasn't
+ultra-exacting and she suited him, and the fact that she was the sole
+heir to millions was the least of the sailor's considerations as he
+dropped his nickel down the slot.  Neither did the identity of the
+young lady's paternal ancestor constitute a problem, despite the
+recent interview with that variable individual.  Matt regarded Cappy
+somewhat in the light of a mixed blessing; while he respected him he
+was a little bit afraid of him, and just at present he disliked him
+exceedingly.  And lastly, his own social and economic status as second
+mate of the most wretched little steam schooner in the Blue Star
+Navigation Company's fleet, failed to enter even remotely into Matt's
+scheme of things.
+
+The reason for this mental stand on his part was a perfectly simple
+and natural one.  To begin, he was a stranger to caste other than that
+of decent manhood.  The only rank he had ever known was that of a
+ship's officer, and that was merely a condition of servitude.  When
+ashore he regarded himself as the equal of any monarch under heaven
+and treated all men accordingly.  Since he had never known any of the
+restrictions of polite conventions behind which society entrenches
+itself in the world occupied by such pampered pets of fortune as Miss
+Florence Ricks, Matt Peasley failed to see a single sound reason why
+he should not indulge a very natural desire for Cappy's ewe lamb--for
+a singularly direct and forceful individual was Matthew.  It was his
+creed to take what he could get away with, provided that in the taking
+he broke no moral, legal or ethical code; and if any thought of the
+apparent incongruity of a sailor's aspiring to the hand of a
+millionaire shipowner's daughter had occurred to him--which, by the
+way, it had not--he would doubtless have analyzed it thusly:
+
+"There she is.  Isn't she a queen?  I want her and there isn't a
+single reason on earth why I shouldn't have her, unless it be that she
+doesn't want me.  However, I'll learn all about that when I get good
+and ready, and if I'm acceptable Cappy Ricks and one of his employees
+are going to have a warm debate--subject, matrimony.  What do I care
+for him?  He's only her father, and I'll bet he wasn't half so well
+fixed as I am when he got married.  I'll just play the game like a
+white man, and if Cappy doesn't like it he'll have to get over it."
+
+"Miss Florence," Matt began, "this is Matt."
+
+"Matt who?" she queried with provoking assumption of innocence.
+
+"Door Mat," he replied.  "Your daddy has just walked all over me at
+any rate."
+
+"Oh, good morning, captain.  Why, what has happened?  Your voice
+sounds like the growl of a big bear."
+
+"I suppose so.  I'm hopping mad.  The very first day I was ashore I
+turned a nice little trick for your father.  I wasn't on the pay roll
+at the time, so we went into the deal together and chartered the Lion
+and the Unicorn to freight ore for the Mannheim people from Alaska to
+Seattle.  I furnished the valuable information and the bright idea,
+and he capitalized both.  The result of the deal was that he has his
+own steamer, the Lion, off his hands for four years, chartered at a
+fancy figure.  Also he chartered the Unicorn from her owner at a cheap
+rate and rechartered at an advance of seventy-five dollars a day, and
+we split that profit between us.  That gives me an income of
+thirty-seven and a half a day for the next four years, provided the
+Unicorn doesn't get wrecked.  Naturally I wanted to stay ashore, when
+there's money to be made as easy as that--and he won't let me."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry, captain."
+
+"Well, that helps."
+
+"You do not have to go to sea, do you?" Miss Ricks queried hopefully.
+
+"Yes, Miss Florry, I do; that's what hurts.  Your father induced me to
+invest all of my savings in a mortgage and a bond, and he has both
+locked up in the Blue Star safe with that ogre Skinner in charge, so I
+can't get them to realize on.  Of course I could go to law and make
+him give them to me, but he knows I'll not do that, so he just sits
+there and defies me.  And I neglected to take the proper business
+precautions about my daily income from the charter of the Unicorn, and
+because I cannot prove I have a divvy coming on that he says he won't
+give me a cent of it.  He says he'll credit my account on the
+company's books, and when the Unicorn completes her charter he'll give
+it to me in a lump.  In the meantime he's going to invest it for me,
+and without consulting me."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Miss Ricks sympathetically.  "I'm so sorry dad's such
+a busybody."
+
+"You're not half so sorry as I am.  I'm flat broke, and in order to
+eat I have to go to work, and in order to go to work I have to get a
+job, and in order to get the job I have to take what your father
+offers me--in fact, insists upon my taking.  You see, Miss Florry, I'm
+almost a stranger in Pacific shipping.  I don't know any owners except
+your father and I've never had any coastwise experience.  It might be
+years before I could get another job as master of a sailing ship, and
+most steamship captains prefer to let some other captains break in
+their mates for them.  So you see I'm helpless."
+
+A silence.  Then:  "I'm going to sea in the Gualala to-morrow morning,
+Florry."
+
+It was the first time he had dropped the "Miss," but he dropped it
+purposely now.  Miss Ricks noticed the omission, which probably imbued
+her with the courage to voice again her excess of sympathy.  Said she:
+"Oh, I'm so sorry, Matt!"
+
+He thrilled at that.  "Well," he answered humorously, "for the first
+time I'm glad I'm not a captain any more!"
+
+Followed another brief silence, while Florry groped for the hidden
+meaning behind that subtle retort; then he continued:  "Your father
+thinks I was a little presumptuous in calling at the house.  He spoke
+to me about it, Florry, so I'm not going to call any more until he
+invites me.  It's his house, you know.  But he didn't say anything
+about not telephoning to you or seeing you outside his confounded
+house, so I suppose there's no necessity for me feeling badly about
+it, is there?"
+
+This was a pretty direct feeler, but Florry parried it with feminine
+skill.
+
+"Of course you can telephone me whenever you get to port.  You mustn't
+take dad too seriously, Matt.  Really he's very fond of you."
+
+"Professionally, yes.  Socially, no.  I think he wants to give me a
+good chance to do something for myself in a business way later on, but
+he made it pretty plain that he is the only member of the Ricks family
+I'm to take seriously.  Of course I expect to have something to say
+about that myself, Florry, but I didn't tell him so.  He's your
+father, you know, and besides, a man can't make a very good showing on
+seventy-five dollars a month.  But if the Unicorn lives to complete
+her charter I'll be up on Easy Street, even if I'll only be a plain
+sea captain when I come into that money.  Of course now I'm only a
+second mate on the worst little steam schooner your father owns and I
+cannot say the things I want to say--I don't mean to your father,
+Florry, but to you--"
+
+"But you're a captain now," Florry interrupted, in delicious terror
+hastening to obstruct any further discussion of what a seventy-five
+dollar man might have to say were he but in position to say it.  "Why
+should you go to work as a second mate--"
+
+"I've been a captain of sail, Florry.  Of course, if I had never been
+master of a vessel of more than five hundred tons net register, or my
+sailing license had been limited to vessels of that tonnage, I should
+have to work up from second mate to master in steam.  But any man who
+has been master of a vessel of more than five hundred tons net
+register for more than one year is entitled to apply for a license as
+master of steam vessels, and if he can pass the examination he can get
+his license."
+
+"Then why don't you do that, Matt?" Florry inquired.
+
+"I have.  The idea of two years' probation as second and first mate
+didn't appeal to me, so while I was waiting round to join the Gualala
+I went up for my ticket as master of steam.  I passed, but when I told
+your father I had a license to command the largest steam freighter he
+owns, he only laughed at me and told me the inspectors weren't running
+his business for him.  Just because I'm not twenty-three years old he
+says I ought to have two years' experience in steam as mate before he
+gives me command of a vessel.  He says I'd better learn the Pacific
+Coast like he knows his front lawn, or some foggy night I'll walk my
+vessel overland and the inspectors will set me down for a couple of
+years."
+
+"Well, that sounds reasonable, Matt."
+
+"Yes, I'll admit there's some justice in his contention, so I'm going
+to do it to please him, although I hate to have him think I'm a
+dog-barking navigator."
+
+"Why, what's that?" Florry demanded.
+
+"A dog-barking navigator is a coastwise blockhead that gets lost if he
+loses sight of land.  He steers a course from headland to headland,
+and every little while on dark nights he stands in close and listens.
+Pretty soon he hears a dog barking alongshore.  'All right,' he says
+to the mate; 'we're off Point Montara. I know that Newfoundland dog's
+barking.  He's the only one on the coast.  Haul her off and hold her
+before the wind for four hours and then stand in again.  When you pick
+up the bark of a foxhound you'll be off Pigeon Point.'"
+
+Florry's laughter drowned a further description of the dog-barking
+navigator's wonderful knowledge of Pacific Coast canines, and after
+some small talk Matt said good-bye and hung up.  When he left the
+telephone booth, however, he was a happier young man than when he had
+entered it, for he had now satisfied himself that while Cappy Ricks
+might arrogate to himself the right of proposing, his daughter could
+be depended upon to attend to the disposing.  He went to his boarding
+house, paid his landlady, packed his clothes and sent them down to the
+Gualala, rubbing her blistered sides against Howard Street Pier No. 1.
+At seven o'clock next morning he was aboard her and at seven-five he
+superintended the casting off of the stern lines and his
+apprenticeship in steam had commenced.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+PROMOTION
+
+
+Cappy Ricks was in a fine rage.  A situation, unique in his forty
+years of experience as a lumber and shipping magnate, was confronting
+him, with the prospects exceedingly bright for Cappy playing a role
+analogous to that of the simpleton who holds the sack on a
+snipe-hunting expedition.  He summoned Mr. Skinner into his private
+office, and glared at the latter over the rims of his spectacles.
+"Skinner," he said solemnly, "there's the very devil to pay."
+
+Mr. Skinner arched his eyebrows and inclined a respectful ear.  Cappy
+continued:
+
+"It's about the Hermosa.  Skinner, that dog-barking navigator you put
+in that schooner while I was on my vacation has balled us up for fair.
+I'll be the laughing-stock of the street."
+
+Parenthetically it may be stated that the Blue Star Navigation
+Company's schooner, Hermosa, had cleared from Astoria for Valparaiso
+with a cargo of railroad ties, and, for some reason which the captain
+could not explain but which Cappy Ricks could, the unfortunate man had
+become lost at sea, finally ending his voyage on a reef on one of the
+Samoan Islands.  The Hermosa had been listed as missing and her owners
+had been on the point of receiving a check for the insurance on the
+vessel and her cargo when an Australian steamer brought news of her
+predicament in Samoa.  Her captain sent word that she was resting
+easily and that he would get her off.  Subsequently, Cappy learned
+that his dog-barking skipper had discharged his cargo of railroad ties
+on barges, in order to lighten the vessel and float her off with the
+aid of a launch.  Unfortunately, however, he discovered a huge hole in
+her garboard, and before he could patch it an extra high tide lifted
+the vessel over the reef and sunk her forty fathoms deep in a place
+where nobody could ever get at her again.
+
+"Yes, sir," Cappy complained.  "I'll be the laughing-stock of the
+street.  Here's a letter from the insurance people, inclosing a check
+for a total loss on the vessel, but they repudiate payment of the
+insurance on the cargo."
+
+"Why?" demanded the amazed Skinner.  "They insured those ties for
+delivery at Callao.  They can't get out of it."
+
+"I'll bet they can," Cappy shrilled.  "I've just called up the Board
+of Underwriters and they say the cargo hasn't been lost.  They say
+nothing is lost if you know where it is, and the ties are on the beach
+in Samoa awaiting our pleasure.  Skinner, call up our attorneys at
+once and tell them to enter suit."
+
+"I was just about to call them up on another matter," Mr. Skinner
+replied.  "As secretary of the Blue Star Navigation Company I have
+just been served with a summons in another suit, entered against the
+Quickstep."
+
+"What in the fiend's name is the matter with that infernal Quickstep?
+This is the third suit we've had in two years.  Skinner, what is wrong
+with that steam schooner?"
+
+"She must be hoodooed, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Another seaman injured by being hit with a cargo block or having a
+piece of eight-by-eight drop on his foot, I suppose."
+
+"Not this time, Mr. Ricks.  One Halvor Jacobsen has sued the Quickstep
+and owners for five thousand dollars for injuries alleged to have been
+inflicted upon him by the captain."
+
+"So that Captain Kjellin has been fighting again, eh?  Skinner, that
+man is too handy with his fists, I tell you.  He's another one of your
+favorites, by the way.  I only put that fellow in the Quickstep to
+please you."
+
+"We haven't a better man in our employ," Mr. Skinner asserted stoutly.
+"He carries larger cargoes and makes faster time than any
+steam-schooner captain in our vessels of similar carrying capacity.
+He's a dividend producer, Mr. Ricks, and he is very efficient."
+
+"Don't talk to me of efficiency," Cappy snarled.  "What's the sense
+rushing the vessel round Robin Hood's barn to make dividends, if we
+lose them in lawsuits?"
+
+"His vessel didn't lay up during the strike of the Waterfront
+Federation in 1903," Skinner challenged.  "You bet she didn't!
+Kjellin rustled up a scab crew and kept the mob off the vessel at the
+point of a gun.  I understand he's a bit short-tempered, but while
+there are ships with red-blooded men in them, Mr. Ricks, we must
+expect the men to pull off a couple of rounds with skin gloves every
+so often."
+
+Cappy looked over the rims of his spectacles at Mr. Skinner.
+"Skinner," he said impressively, "listen to me:  This is the last suit
+that's going to be entered against the Quickstep.  Was that man Halvor
+Jacobsen who is suing us second mate on the Quickstep?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I knew it," Cappy shrilled triumphantly.  "Skinner, with all your
+efficiency ideas, you fail to see anything remarkable in that fact.
+Now don't tell me you do, because I know you do not.  This is the
+third suit since Kjellin took charge, and that's proof enough for me
+that there's something wrong with that big Finn.  Those other two
+suits were for injuries received by men loading cargo in the after
+hold.  The after hold is presided over by the second mate."  Cappy
+waved his hands.  "Huh!" he said.  "Simple!"
+
+"I believe I comprehend," Mr. Skinner admitted.  "But what are you
+going to do about it?  We can scarcely discharge Kjellin without a
+hearing and without proof that he is to blame."
+
+"What am I going to do about it?" Cappy echoed.  "Why, I'm going to
+send a judge and a jury aboard the Quickstep, try this Finn, Kjellin,
+and if he's guilty of dereliction of duty I'll bet you a plug hat to
+one small five-cent bag of smoking tobacco I'll know all about it
+inside of a week."
+
+"Do you mean to put a secret-service operative aboard disguised as a
+deckhand?"
+
+"Huh!  Skinner, you distress me.  I'm going to put Matt Peasley aboard
+the Quickstep as second mate, and let Nature take its course."
+
+"I wouldn't do that if I were you, sir," Mr. Skinner advised.  "That
+rowdy Peasley and a man like Kjellin will not get along together for
+one voyage; then Kjellin will fire him, and first thing you know
+you'll be groping around in the dark again."
+
+"Oh, I know this Finn is a pet of yours," Cappy retorted acidly, "but
+Matt Peasley is a pet of mine.  If we put them together in the same
+ship maybe we'll have one of those skin-glove contests you referred to
+a minute ago, but between their mutual recriminations you can bet your
+hopes of Heaven I'll catch a glimpse of the truth and act accordingly.
+Matt will not tell a lie, Skinner.  Remember that."
+
+"Neither will Kjellin," Skinner declared with equal warmth.
+
+"Well, I don't know whether he will or not.  However, that's beside
+the question.  Where is the Florence Ricks?"
+
+"Sailed from San Pedro at noon yesterday."
+
+"Where is the Quickstep?"
+
+"Sailed from Eureka to load shingles last night."
+
+"Good.  Wireless the master of the Florence to provide himself with a
+new second mate.  That will give him time to wireless ahead and have
+one waiting for him when the vessel touches in to discharge passengers
+from the south.  Tell him to inform Peasley he isn't fired, but just
+transferred.  Attend to it, Skinner."
+
+While Mr. Skinner departed to carry out Cappy's order, the old
+gentleman called up Harbor 15, Masters' and Pilots' Association, and
+asked for the secretary.
+
+"Ricks of the Blue Star speaking," he announced crisply.  "Been
+furnishing many second mates to the Quickstep lately?"
+
+"Why, yes, Mr. Ricks.  Kjellin wires for a new second mate quite
+frequently.  They don't seem to stay with him more than a voyage or
+two.  He's quite a driver, you know, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"I know," Cappy replied grimly.  "The next time he wires in to have a
+second mate join the ship when he touches in here, you might be good
+enough to call me up.  I have a skookum young second mate in the
+Florence Ricks that I'm training for a captain, and I want to switch
+him in on the Humboldt Bay run for the sake of the experience.  And,
+of course, you know how it is with masters--they like to think they're
+selecting their own mates, and always resent any interference from
+their owners.  And if you do ask them to take a certain mate they're
+apt to suspect he's a spy from the office, and--well, you understand.
+I'd prefer to have this lad I have in mind go aboard as if you had
+sent him."
+
+"I understand, Mr. Ricks.  I'll let you know the first time Kjellin
+wires in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CAPPY HAS A HEART
+
+
+"Well, Matt," said Cappy Ricks, cheerfully, as he shook hands with the
+late second mate of the Florence Ricks.  "We don't see much of each
+other now that you're a mate.  But don't worry, you'll be a master
+again, and then you'll be dropping in here a couple of times a month
+pestering me for a lot of things for your ship that you could probably
+get along without.  You're looking fit, my boy."
+
+"I'm feeling fit, sir," Matt replied, grinning.
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," was Cappy's grim reply.  "Hum!  Harump-h-h-h!
+Let me see now.  You've had your course in the Mendocino dog-holes,
+and that's over.  I hope you learned something.  You've run for seven
+months from all the Washington and Oregon ports to Southern
+California, and--er--that's very nice.  But you haven't been over
+Humboldt Bar yet, have you?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then you have something coming.  Quite a bar in the winter time,
+Matt, quite a bar!  Good many tickets been lost on that bar, Matt, so
+you ought to have more than a nodding acquaintance with it.  You're
+going second mate in the Quickstep.  She's carrying redwood shingles
+from Eureka to the Shingle Association's air-drying yards up river at
+Los Medanos at present, and she'll get to Los Medanos Sunday
+afternoon, so you'd better get there about the same time, in order to
+turn to discharging bright and early Monday morning.  And you'll have
+to step lively, Matt.  The Quickstep lives up to her name, and the way
+they put shingles into that vessel is a scandal."
+
+"Shingles are nice stuff to handle," Matt ventured.
+
+"Not redwood shingles, Matt.  All right after they're dry, but when
+they come fresh from the saws they bleed a little, so be sure and wear
+gloves when you handle them.  If you have a cut on your hand that
+redwood sap may poison you.  I think you'll like the Quickstep, Matt."
+
+"It doesn't matter whether I do or not," Matt replied humorously.
+"You always do things for me without consulting me anyhow."
+
+"Why, you don't mind, do you, my boy?  It's all for your own good."
+
+"I can bear it, sir, because one of these bright days I'm going to do
+something without consulting you."
+
+Cappy favored him with a sharp glance.  "As the street boys say," he
+flashed back, "'I get you, Steve!'"
+
+"And having gotten me, Mr. Ricks, do you still want me in your
+employ?"
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly.  Any time I want to get rid of you I'll
+fire you or have Skinner do it for me."
+
+Matt looked at his watch and rose.  "I have four days' shore leave
+before me, sir," he said, "so I guess I'll be trotting along and make
+the most of it.  I'll be at Los Medanos Sunday night."
+
+"Her skipper's a big Finn," Cappy warned him.  "Behave yourself, Matt.
+He's bad medicine for young second mates."
+
+"I'll do my duty, sir."
+
+He took his leave.  As he went out the door Cappy gazed after him with
+twinkling eyes:  "Young scoundrel!" he murmured.  "Damned young
+scoundrel!  You'll be ringing Florry up the minute you leave this
+office, if you haven't already done it.  I'm onto you, young fellow!"
+
+Matt Peasley took Florry Ricks to a matinee that very day.  Cappy,
+suspecting he might attempt something of the sort and desiring to
+verify his suspicions, went home from the office early that day, and
+from his hiding place behind the window drapes in his drawing room he
+observed a taxicab draw up in front of his residence at six o'clock.
+From this vehicle Matt Peasley, astonishingly well tailored, alighted,
+handed out the heir to the Ricks millions, said good-by lingeringly
+and drove away.
+
+"Well," Cappy soliloquized, "I guess I'm going to land the son-in-law
+I'm after.  The matinee is over at a quarter of five, and those two
+have fooled away an hour.  I'll bet a dollar Florry steered that
+sailor into a tea fight somewhere, and if she did that, Matt, you're a
+tip-top risk and I'll underwrite you."
+
+That same evening Cappy sneaked into his daughter's apartments and
+found a photograph of Matt Peasley in a hammered silver frame on
+Florry's dressing table.
+
+"Holy sailor!" he chuckled.  "They think they're putting one over on
+the old gentleman, don't they?  Trying to cover me with blood, eh?
+Huh!  If I'd let that fellow Matt stay ashore he'd have hung round
+Florry until he wore out his welcome, and I suppose in the long run
+I'd have had to put up with one of these lawn-tennis, tea-swilling
+young fellows too proud to work.  By Judas Priest, when I quit the
+street I want to give my proxy to a lad that will make my competitors
+mind their step, and by keeping Matt at sea a couple of years, I'll
+get him over the moon-calf period.  Deliver my girl and my business
+from the hands of a damned fool!"
+
+The following evening Cappy questioned his daughter's chauffeur--a
+chauffeur, by the way, being a luxury which Cappy scorned for himself.
+He maintained a coachman and a carriage and a spanking team of bays,
+and drove to his office like the old-fashioned gentleman he was.  From
+this chauffeur Cappy learned that he, the chauffeur, had been out all
+the afternoon with Miss Florence and a large, light-hearted young
+gentleman.  They had lunched together at the Cliff House.
+
+"What did she call him?" Cappy demanded, anxious to verify his
+suspicions.  "Didn't she address him as 'Matt?'"
+
+"No, sir," the man replied, grinning.  "She called him 'dearie.'"
+
+"Holy jumped-up Jehosophat!" murmured Cappy, and questioned the man no
+further.  That evening, however, he decided to have a
+heart--particularly after Florry had informed him that she was going
+out to dinner the following night.
+
+"And you'll be all alone, popsy-wops," she added, "so you had better
+eat dinner at the club."
+
+"Oh, I'm tired of my clubs," Cappy replied sadly.  "Still your remark
+gives me an idea, Florry.  If I happen to run across that young fellow
+Peasley--you remember him, Florry; the boy I'm training for a
+steamship captain--I'll have him out for dinner with me so I'll not
+have to eat alone."
+
+"I thought you didn't care for him socially," Florry put forth a
+feeler.
+
+"Well, he used to remind me considerably of a St. Bernard pup, but I
+notice he's losing a lot of that fresh, puppy-dog way he used to have.
+And then he's a Down-East boy.  His Uncle Ethan Peasley and I were
+pals together fifty years ago, and for Ethan's sake I feel that I
+ought to show the boy some consideration.  He's learning to hold
+himself together pretty well, and if I should run into him to-morrow
+I'll ask him out."
+
+Florry exhibited not the slightest interest in her father's plans, but
+he noticed that immediately after dinner she hurried up to her room,
+and that upon her return she declined a game of pool with her father
+on the score of not feeling very well.
+
+"You skipped upstairs like a sick woman," Cappy reflected.  "I'll bet
+a hat you telephoned that son of a sea cook to be sure and throw
+himself in my way to-morrow, so I'll invite him out to dinner.  And
+you're complaining of a headache now so you'll have a good excuse to
+cancel that dinner engagement to-morrow night so as to eat at home
+with your daddy and his guest.  Poor old father!  He's such a dub!
+I'll bet myself a four-bit cigar I eat breakfast alone to-morrow
+morning."
+
+And it was even so.  Florry sent down word that she was too indisposed
+to breakfast with her father, and the old man drove chuckling to his
+office.  That afternoon Matt Peasley, in an endeavor to invade the
+floor of the Merchants' Exchange, to which he had no right, was
+apprehended by the doorkeeper and asked to show his credentials.
+
+"Oh, I'm Captain Peasley, of the Blue Star Navigation Company," he
+replied lightly, and was granted admittance as the courtesy accorded
+all sea captains.  He knew Cappy Ricks always spent an hour on 'Change
+after luncheon at the Commercial Club.  When Cappy met him, however,
+the old man was mean enough to pay not the slightest attention to
+Matt; so after waiting round for three-quarters of an hour longer, the
+latter left the Exchange and walked down California Street, where he
+posted himself in the shelter of a corner half a block south of No.
+258, where the Blue Star Navigation Company had its offices.  From
+this vantage point presently he spied Cappy trotting home from the
+Merchants' Exchange; whereupon Matt strolled leisurely up the street
+and met him.  And in order that Cappy should realize whom he was
+meeting Matt bumped into the schemer and then begged his pardon
+profusely.
+
+"Don't mention it, Matt," the old rascal protested.  "You shook up a
+flock of ideas in my head and jarred one loose.  If you haven't
+anything on to-night, my boy, better come out to the house and have
+dinner with me.  I'm all alone and I want company."
+
+"Thank you, sir," Matt replied enthusiastically; "I'll be glad to
+come."
+
+"You bet you will," Cappy thought.  Aloud he said:  "At six-thirty."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Thank you, sir."  And Matt Peasley was off like a
+tin-canned dog to slick himself up for the party, while Cappy entered
+the elevator chuckling.  "If I ever find the sour-souled philosopher
+who said you can't mix business and sentiment without resultant
+chaos," he soliloquized, "I'll boil the kill-joy in oil."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+NATURE TAKES HER COURSE
+
+
+The big steam schooner Quickstep was lying at the Los Medanos dock
+when Matt Peasley reported for duty.  The captain was not aboard, but
+the first mate received him kindly and explained that Captain Kjellin
+had gone down to San Francisco by train for a little social relaxation
+and to bring back funds to pay off the longshoremen.
+
+Early on Monday morning the crew and a large force of stevedores
+commenced to discharge the vessel.  Two winches were kept busy, the
+first mate being in charge of the work up forward and Matt
+superintending that aft.  The shingles were loaded in huge rope cargo
+nets, snatched out of the ship and swung overside onto flat cars,
+which were shunted off into the drying yard as soon as loaded.
+
+The captain returned at noon on Tuesday, and at two o'clock the last
+bundle of shingles was out of the Quickstep, for the mate had worked
+overtime Monday night in order that they might finish discharging
+early enough on Tuesday afternoon to drop down to Oleum and take on
+fuel oil for the next voyage.  This schedule would bring them to the
+dock at San Francisco about six o'clock, where they would take on
+stores and passengers and sail at seven for Eureka, on Humboldt Bay,
+where they would arrive Wednesday night.  On Thursday they would
+commence taking on cargo, but since they had to take shingles from
+several mills round the bay, they were bound to be delayed waiting for
+tides to get in and out, and in all probability they would not be
+loaded and at sea until Saturday night, which would give them Sunday
+at sea--and in the lumber trade on the Pacific Coast the only
+profitable way to spend Sunday is to spend it at sea.  To spend it in
+port is a day lost, with the crew loafing and drawing full pay for it.
+The mate explained to Matt that Captain Kjellin would drive them hard
+to maintain this schedule, for he prized his job as master of the
+Quickstep, and had a reputation for speed and efficiency with his
+owners which he was anxious to maintain.
+
+Despite their best efforts, however, the vessel was doomed to fall
+behind her schedule.  At Oleum they found the oil dock lined with
+vessels taking on fuel, and in consequence were forced to wait two
+hours for a berth; seeing which the captain went ashore and telephoned
+his owners that he would be unable to get to the dock in San Francisco
+until about eight o'clock.  Consequently, Mr. Skinner, realizing that
+the passengers their agent had booked for the Quickstep, by reason of
+the cut-rates prevailing on lumber steamers, would not wait on the
+dock until the Quickstep should arrive, instructed the captain to lay
+over in San Francisco all night and put to sea at nine o'clock
+Wednesday morning.  In the meantime he said he would send a clerk down
+to the dock to notify the waiting passengers of the unavoidable change
+in schedule.
+
+Promptly at eight o'clock Wednesday morning the Quickstep got away
+from the dock.  The minute she was fairly out the Golden Gate,
+however, she poked her nose into a stiff nor'west gale; and as she was
+bound north and was empty, this gale, catching her on the port
+counter, caused her to roll and pitch excessively, and cut her
+customary speed of ten miles an hour down to five.  Every passenger
+aboard was soon desperately seasick, and off Point Reyes so violently
+did the Quickstep pitch that even some members of the crew became
+nauseated, among them Matt Peasley.  He had never been seasick before
+and he was ashamed of himself now, notwithstanding the fact that he
+knew even the hardiest old seadogs are not proof against mal-de-mer
+under certain extraordinary conditions.  Captain Kjellin, coming up on
+the bridge during Matt's watch, found the latter doing the most
+unseamanlike thing imaginable.  Caught in a paroxysm at the weather
+end of the bridge, Matt, in his agony, was patronizing the weather
+rail!  The captain heard him squawk, and ducked to avoid what instinct
+told him the gale would bring him his way.
+
+"Vat you ban tankin' of?" he roared furiously.  "You damned landsman!
+Don't you know enough to discharge dot cargo over der lee rail?"
+
+Having disposed of a hearty breakfast, Matt raised his green face and
+stared sheepishly at the Finn.  "You didn't get sprayed, did you,
+sir?" he queried breathlessly.
+
+"No, but who der devil ever heard of a seaman gettin' sick to
+windward--?"
+
+"I know it looks awful, sir," quavered Matt.  "I thought something
+like this might happen, and in order to be prepared for eventualities
+I hung a fire bucket over the edge of the weather-bridge railing and
+set another there by the binnacle.  The man at the wheel got me
+started, sir.  He asked me if I liked fat pork.  Can't you see that if
+I had made a quick run for the lee rail while the vessel was pitching
+to leeward the chances are I'd continue right on overboard?  As soon
+as I get my bearings again I'll empty the bucket, sir."
+
+"Der fire buckets ban't for dot purpose."
+
+"All right, sir.  I'll buy you a new fire bucket when we get to
+Eureka," Matt answered contritely.
+
+Kjellin stayed on the bridge a few minutes, growling and glaring, but
+Matt was too ill and dispirited to pay any attention to him, so
+finally he went below.
+
+The Quickstep bucked the gale all the way to Humboldt Bar, and tied up
+at the first mill dock at half past one o'clock on Friday.  It was two
+o'clock before the passengers and their baggage had been sent ashore,
+but the minute the last trunk went over the rail the loading began.
+
+"We'll work overtime again to-night," the first mate told Matt at
+luncheon.  "The old man will drive us hard to-morrow, and we'll have
+more overtime Saturday night so we can get to sea early Sunday
+morning."
+
+"I don't care," Matt replied.  "I get seventy-five cents an hour for
+my overtime, and I'm big enough to stand a lot of that.  But, believe
+me, I'll jump lively.  The old man's out of sorts on account of the
+delay due to that head wind."
+
+At three o'clock the captain walked aft, where Matt Peasley was
+superintending the stowing in the after hold.
+
+"Is dot all you've got to do," he sneered--"settin' roundt mit your
+hands in your poggeds?"
+
+Matt glared at him.  True, his hands were in his pockets at that
+moment, but he was not setting round.  He was watching a slingload of
+shingles hovering high over the hatch, and the instant it was lowered
+he intended to leap upon it, unship the cargo hook, hang the spare
+cargo net on it and whistle to the winchman to hoist away for another
+slingload.  He controlled his temper and said:
+
+"I'm doing the best I can, sir.  That winchman doesn't have to wait on
+us a second, sir.  We handle them as fast as they swing them in from
+the mill dock."
+
+"Yump in an' do somedings yourself," Kjellin growled.  "Don't stand
+roundt like a young leddy."
+
+"D'ye mean you want I should mule shingles round in this hold like a
+longshoreman?"
+
+"Sure!  Ve got to get to sea Sunday morning, und every liddle bit
+helps."
+
+"Well, then you'll get along without my little bit.  If you don't know
+your business, sir, I know mine.  Somebody's got to tend that sling,
+and everybody's business is nobody's business.  If I'm not on the job
+a bundle of shingles may come flying down from above and kill a man,
+or that heavy cargo block may crack a stevedore on the head.  Who's
+going to look after the broken bundles and see that they're repacked
+if I don't?  I can't do that and mule shingles round in this hold,
+sir; and what's more I'm not going to do it."
+
+"Den, by yimminy, you get off der ship!" the captain roared.  "I don't
+vant no loafers aboard my boat, und if you tank--"
+
+"Stow the gab, you big Finn!  I'm through.  Pay me off and help
+yourself to another second mate."  And Matt put on his coat and
+whistled to the winchman to steady his slingload while he climbed out
+of the hold.  Kjellin followed and Matt preceded him to his stateroom,
+where the captain paid him the few dollars he had coming to him.
+
+"Sign clear," he ordered, and Matt took an indelible pencil and
+stooped over the skipper's desk to sign the pay roll.  As he
+straightened up the captain's powerful left forearm came round Matt's
+left shoulder and under his chin, tilting his head backward, while the
+Finn's left knee ground into the small of his back.  He was held as in
+a vise, helpless, and Kjellin spoke:
+
+"Ven I get fresh young faler like you, an' he quit me cold, I lick him
+after I pay him off."
+
+"I see," Matt replied calmly.  "That makes it a plain case of assault
+and battery, whereas if you lick him before you pay him off, he can
+sue your owners.  You're a fine, smart squarehead!"
+
+"You bet!" Kjellin answered, and struck him a stunning blow behind the
+ear.  Matt, realizing his inability to wriggle out of the captain's
+grasp, kicked backward with his right foot and caught the Finn
+squarely on the right shin, splintering the bone.  The captain cried
+out with the pain of it and released the pressure on Matt's chin,
+whereupon the latter whirled, picked the Finn up bodily, and threw him
+through the stateroom door out onto the deck, where he struck the pipe
+railing and rebounded.  He lay where he fell, and when Matt's brain
+cleared and he came out on deck the captain was moaning.
+
+"Get up, you brute!" Matt ordered.  "You got the wrong pig by the ear
+that time."
+
+"My leg ban broken," Kjellin whimpered.
+
+"I wish it was your neck," Matt replied with feeling, and bent over to
+examine his fallen foe.  When he grasped Kjellin by the right
+shoulder, however, the Finn screamed with pain, so Matt called the
+steward, and together they lifted him and carried him to his berth.
+
+"I'll bet a cooky you're a total loss and no accident insurance," Matt
+soliloquized.  "You're not worth it, but for the sake of the owners
+I'll get a doctor to look you over," and he went ashore at once.  When
+the doctor had looked Thorwald Kjellin over his verdict was a broken
+tibia, a broken radius and a broken clavicle.
+
+Matt was concerned.  "I don't think I ever had any of those things to
+get broken," he declared humorously, "but if mere words mean anything
+I'll bet this is a hospital job."  The doctor nodded, and Matt turned
+to the captain:  "Do you want to go to the hospital in Eureka or in
+San Francisco?"
+
+"I ban vant to go home," the Finn moaned.
+
+"Very well, captain; I guess your successor will bring you there.  I'm
+going up to the mill office now to report to the owners by telephone."
+
+"Dot ban't none o' your business, Peasley," Kjellin protested.  "Dot
+is der first mate's job.  You ban fired."
+
+"Yes, I know.  Now I'm back-firing," Matt retorted.
+
+Fifteen minutes later he had Cappy Ricks on the long-distance
+telephone.
+
+"Mr. Ricks," he began, "this is Peasley talking from Eureka.  I have
+to report that I'm fired out of the Quickstep.  I'm not complaining
+about that or asking you to reinstate me, because I can get another
+job now, but I want to tell you why I was fired.  The captain got a
+grouch against me coming up.  We had a nor'west gale on our port
+counter and she rolled and bucked until even some of the crew got
+seasick.  I'm ashamed to say I fell by the wayside myself for a few
+minutes, and Captain Kjellin caught me draped over the weather bridge
+railing.  So I guess he thought I wasn't much of a seaman.  Anyhow he
+picked on me from then on, and a little while ago he ordered me to
+mule shingles with the longshoremen in the after hold.  I couldn't do
+that, Mr. Ricks.  I'm a ship's officer, and besides you've simply got
+to have somebody to watch the slings when they're coming into the ship
+at the rate of two a minute or somebody will get hurt, and then the
+vessel will be sued for damages.  You see we were working overtime and
+in a hurry to get loaded--"
+
+"I see everything," Cappy retorted.  "What happened next?"
+
+"The captain got me foul in his cabin when I went to be paid off, and
+hung a shanty back of my ear, so I threw him out on deck and hurt him.
+You'll have to send a new skipper up to bring the Quickstep home,
+sir.  The first mate is a good man but he hasn't a master's license--"
+
+"What did you do to Kjellin, Matt?"
+
+"You'll have to ask a doctor, sir.  I didn't intend to break him up,
+but it seems I damaged all his Latin superstructure, and he'll have to
+go to a hospital for a couple of months.  I'm sorry I hurt your
+skipper, sir, and I felt I couldn't leave your employ, Mr. Ricks,
+without an explanation."
+
+"You haven't left my employ at all.  Get back on the job and load that
+vessel, or the first thing you know you'll be stuck in port over
+Sunday, and that's not the way to make a start as master of the
+Quickstep.  You have a license as master of steam, haven't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  I can handle her, sir."
+
+"Then do it and don't stand there burning up good money on the
+long-distance phone.  The Quickstep is yours--on one condition."
+
+"I accept it, sir," Matt exclaimed, overjoyed.  "What is it?"
+
+"That you stick in her at least six months."
+
+"I will if I live and she floats that long, sir.  Thank you.  Please
+have a second mate and an ambulance waiting for me at Meiggs Wharf on
+Monday.  I'll touch in there on my way up river to discharge what's
+left of your skipper."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+MR. SKINNER HEARS A LECTURE
+
+
+Down in the offices of the Blue Star Navigation Company Cappy Ricks,
+having summoned Mr. Skinner, sat peering whimsically at the general
+manager over the rims of his spectacles.  "Well, Skinner, my dear
+boy," he announced presently, "sure enough there was something wrong
+with the Quickstep, and now I know what it is; she has had the wrong
+master.  When he hustles to catch a tide or to get to sea Saturday
+night or Sunday morning he drives his mates and tries to make them do
+longshoremen's work.  When he bullied a weak mate into doing that,
+there was nobody to pay exclusive attention to the slingloads as they
+came into the ship, and naturally accidents resulted.  When strong
+second mates refused he fired them, and after firing them he cornered
+them in his cabin, held them foul and beat them.  You see, Skinner,
+this skookum skipper of yours didn't realize that with two slingloads
+of shingles a minute dropping into the ship he had to have a man on
+the job to watch the loading and do nothing else; and because he
+didn't realize the error of his way, Skinner, he and Matt Peasley have
+pulled off that little skin-glove contest, and now Kjellin looks like
+a barrel of cement that's been dropped out the window of a six-story
+building.  Hum!  Ahem!  Harump-h-h-h!  Call up the attorney for that
+man Jacobsen that's suing the Quickstep, and tell him to come down
+here with his man and we'll settle the case out of court.  His charge
+lies against Kjellin for assault and battery, but after all, Skinner,
+I dare say we are in a measure responsible for our servants.  I'll
+give the attorney about twenty-five dollars for his fee, and er--the
+man Jacobsen--let me see, Skinner, he had a broken nose, did he not?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"We'll pay his doctor bill and his wages as second mate since Kjellin
+fired him, and give him a hundred dollars extra."
+
+"How about Kjellin's hospital bill?"
+
+"I disclaim responsibility, Skinner.  Did he settle up with the
+cashier for his last voyage?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Then send him a wireless and tell him he's fired.  Also, Skinner, my
+boy, see that an ambulance is waiting for him at Meiggs Wharf when he
+arrives on the Quickstep on Monday.  We'll show him we're not entirely
+heartless.  Make it clear, however, that this office will not be
+responsible for the ambulance fee.  Matt will bring the vessel down
+without a second mate, I dare say.  He'll stand a watch himself.
+Better call up Harbor 15 and see if there isn't a second mate out of a
+job hanging round there, and tell him to join the ship at Meiggs
+Wharf."
+
+Mr. Skinner's eyes fairly popped.  "You don't mean to tell me, sir,
+that you've given the Quickstep to that rowdy Peasley?"
+
+Cappy relapsed into the colloquialism of the younger generation with
+which he was wont to associate at luncheon.  "Surest thing you know,"
+he said.
+
+"If I may be permitted a criticism, Mr. Ricks--"
+
+"You may not."
+
+"Your sentimental leaning toward your fellow townsman may be the cause
+of losing one of the best paying ships of the fleet."
+
+"Forget it, Skinner!"
+
+"Oh, very well.  You're the boss, Mr. Ricks.  But if I were in your
+place I would have an older and more experienced man to relieve him
+the moment he comes into the bay.  You must remember, Mr. Ricks, that
+while he may run her very nicely during the summer months, he has had
+no experience on Humboldt Bay during the winter months--"
+
+"Skinner, the only way he'll ever accumulate experience on that bar is
+to give him the opportunity."
+
+"He'll take big risks.  He's very young and headstrong."
+
+"I admit he's fiery.  But I promised him a ship, and he's earned her
+sooner than I planned, so, even if my decision loses the Quickstep for
+us, he shall have her.  I'll be swindled if I ever did see the like of
+that boy Matt.  He gets results.  And do you know why, Skinner?"
+
+"Because," Mr. Skinner replied coldly, "he's a huge, healthy animal,
+able and willing to fight his way in any ship, and at the same time
+clever enough to take advantage of your paternal interest in him--"
+
+"Rats!  I'll give you the answer, Skinner, my boy:  He gets results
+because he does his duty and doesn't sidestep for man or devil.  And
+he's able to do his duty and do it well because he has a clear
+understanding of what his duty is--and that, Skinner, is the kind of
+skipper material I've been looking for all my life.  As for the boy's
+horsepower, let me tell you this:  If Matt Peasley wasn't any bigger
+than I am, he'd fight any man that tried to walk over him.  It's in
+his breed.  Damn it, sir, he's a Yankee skipper, and when you've said
+that you're through.  I guess I know.  How much have we been paying
+that bully Kjellin?"
+
+"Two hundred a month."
+
+"Too much!  Pay Matt two-twenty-five and attend to the certificate of
+change of masters."
+
+When Mr. Skinner had departed Cappy sat back in his chair and closed
+his eyes, as was his habit when his gigantic brain grappled with a
+problem of more than ordinary dimensions.  For fully ten minutes he
+sat absolutely motionless, then suddenly he straightened up like a
+jack-in-the-box and summoned Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Skinner," he said plaintively, "I'm feeling a little run down.  Will
+you please be good enough to book Florry and me passage to Europe
+right away.  I've never been to Europe, you know, Skinner, and I think
+it's time I took a vacation."
+
+Mr. Skinner smiled.  "Why all the hurry?" he queried.
+
+"I want to try out a theory," Cappy replied.  "I have a great
+curiosity, Skinner, to ascertain if there is any truth in the old
+saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder.  And if it does,
+Skinner--why, the sooner I start the sooner I can get back."
+
+Mr. Skinner went out mystified.  As Mark Twain's friend, Mr. Ballou,
+remarked about the coffee, Cappy Ricks was a little too "technical"
+for him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+INTERNAL COMBUSTION
+
+
+The Quickstep had arrived in port again before Cappy Ricks and Florry
+could get away to Europe, so Matt came down by train from Los Medanos
+and was granted the meager comfort of a farewell with his heart's
+desire.  Thereafter all comfort fled his life, for, with Cappy Ricks
+away, Mr. Skinner was high and low justice, and he was not long
+keeping Matt Peasley in ignorance of the fact that it was one thing to
+skipper a Blue Star ship for Cappy Ricks and quite another thing to
+skipper the same ship for the Blue Star manager.  For Mr. Skinner had
+never liked Captain Peasley, and, moreover, he never intended to, for
+the master of the Quickstep was not sufficiently submissive to earn
+the general manager's approbation as a desirable employee, and Cappy
+Ricks was the only man with a will and a way of his own who could get
+along amicably in the same office with the efficient and cold-blooded
+Mr. Skinner.
+
+Cappy wasn't outside Sandy Hook before Mr. Skinner had Matt on the
+carpet for daring to bring the Quickstep up river without a pilot.  He
+demanded an explanation.
+
+"I made careful note of all the twists and turns when the pilot took
+me up the first time," Matt declared.  "It isn't a difficult channel,
+so I decided to save forty-five dollars the next time and take her up
+myself."
+
+"Suppose you'd buried her nose in the mud and we'd had to lighter her
+deckload to get her off," Mr. Skinner suggested.
+
+Matt grinned.  "If your aunt was a man she'd be your uncle, wouldn't
+she?" he parried.  He had made up his mind not to take Mr. Skinner
+seriously.  Mr. Skinner flushed, looked dangerous, but concluded not
+to pursue the investigation further.
+
+Three weeks later, when making up to a dock at San Pedro, a strong ebb
+tide and a mistake in judgment swung the bow of the Quickstep into the
+end of the dock and a dolphin was torn out.  In the fullness of time
+the Blue Star Navigation Company was in receipt of a bill for $112
+dock repairs, whereupon Mr. Skinner wrote Matt, prefacing his letter
+with the query:  "Referring to inclosed bill--how did this happen?"
+Then he went on to scold Matt bitterly for his inability to handle his
+ship properly in making up to a dock.
+
+Matt promptly returned Mr. Skinner his own letter, with this penciled
+memorandum at the bottom of the page:  "Referring to inclosed bill for
+dock repairs--the dock happened to be in my course.  That's the only
+way I can account for it."
+
+For some time, whenever the Quickstep carried shingle cargoes for the
+Shingle Association, there had been disputes over her freight bill,
+due to continued discrepancies between the tally in and the tally out,
+and Mr. Skinner had instructed Matt to tally his next cargo into the
+ship himself and then tally it out again.  Matt engaged a certified
+lumber surveyor at five dollars a day to do the tallying at the
+various mills, but at Los Medanos he tallied the cargo out personally.
+To a shingle it agreed with the mill tally.  Subsequently the manager
+of the drying yard reported a shortage of eight thousand shingles, and
+again Mr. Skinner wrote Matt for an explanation, to which Matt replied
+as follows:
+
+"Do not pay any attention to the yard manager's tally.  Ours is right.
+A certified tallyman counted 11,487,250 in, and I counted 11,487,250
+out, as I have already reported.  Sorry I cannot reverse my decision.
+However, I have an idea which may account for the shortage:  After the
+vessel is reported down river, the stevedores gather on the dock, and
+while waiting for us to arrive and commence discharging they whittle
+shingles to pass the time away.  I give you this information for what
+it may be worth."
+
+Mr. Skinner had the grace to see that he had been rebuked and left
+standing in a very poor light for one of his noted efficiency, so he
+did not pursue the subject further; but the next time Matt came to the
+office he jumped on him for carrying a dead-head passenger from San
+Pedro in the first cabin.
+
+"Of course I carried him," Matt replied.  "When I was before the mast
+in the Annabel Lee he was her skipper, so when I met him in Pedro
+minus his ticket and stony broke I gave him a lift to San Francisco.
+Mr. Ricks informed me that I would be permitted these little
+courtesies within the bounds of reason."
+
+"When Captain Kjellin had the Quickstep," Mr. Skinner answered, "he
+never carried dead-heads."
+
+"You mean he didn't have the courage to put the name on the passenger
+list and write D. H. after it.  However, please do not compare me with
+Captain Kjellin."
+
+"Well, you're not making the time he made in the Quickstep."
+
+"I know it, sir.  My policy is to make haste slowly.  Kjellin
+hurried--and see what happened to him.  He'll never be fast again,
+either, with that short leg of his."
+
+"Captain Peasley, I am opposed to your levity."
+
+"Do you want me to worry and stew just because you do not happen to
+like me and keep picking on me, Mr. Skinner?  Why don't you be a sport
+and give me a fair chance, sir?  You have all the best of it in any
+argument--so why argue?"
+
+"No more dead-heads," Mr. Skinner warned.  "Hereafter, pay for your
+guests."
+
+With the coming on of winter, however, Matt's troubles with Mr.
+Skinner really commenced, although, in all justice to Skinner, the
+general manager was merely following out his theory of efficiency, and
+in respect to the matter upon which he deviled Matt Peasley most he
+did not differ vastly from many managing owners of steam schooners on
+the Pacific Coast.  The trouble lay in the fact that the Quickstep
+carried passengers.  While she was a cargo boat, and hence had no
+regular run or sailing schedule, her cabin accommodations were really
+very good and her steward's department excelled that of the regular
+passenger boats.  By cutting the regular passenger rates from
+twenty-five to forty per cent. and advertising the vessel to sail at a
+certain hour on a certain date from a certain pier, free-lance ticket
+brokers found no difficulty in getting her a fair complement of
+passengers each trip.  There was a moderate profit in this passenger
+traffic, and Mr. Skinner was anxious to increase it.
+
+The difficulty surrounding the passenger business in the
+steam-schooner trade, however, lies in the uncertainty of a vessel's
+arrival and departure.  It is all guesswork.  Thus Matt Peasley, with
+his cargo half discharged at San Pedro, would estimate that he would
+sail from that port, northbound via San Francisco to some Oregon or
+Washington port for another cargo, at noon on the following day.
+Accordingly, he would wire his owners, who would immediately advertise
+the sailing of the vessel from San Francisco forty hours later, the
+Quickstep's average running time between San Pedro and San Francisco
+being about thirty-eight hours.  If the master's estimate proved
+correct and there were no strong head winds to retard the vessel, she
+would sail within an hour or two of the advertised time, whereas a
+delay of six to eight hours in the arrival of the vessel at San
+Francisco might mean the loss of all the passenger business garnered
+for that trip; for competition was keen, and the ticket agents,
+selling on a commission of one dollar per ticket, would switch the
+traffic to some other vessel sailing earlier rather than have the
+tickets canceled and thus lose the commission.
+
+When through delay or miscalculation the vessel lost passenger traffic
+out of a port other than San Francisco, Mr. Skinner did not feel
+discouraged.  To lose passengers out of San Francisco, where the home
+office of the Blue Star Navigation Company was located, however,
+savored of a reflection on his efficiency, and caused him much bitter
+anguish.  Consequently, when Matt Peasley, with a full passenger list
+from Eureka to San Francisco, wired Mr. Skinner that he would leave
+his loading port at two P. M. on Wednesday, Mr. Skinner allowed him
+twenty-two hours for landing his passengers from Eureka to San
+Francisco and taking on another load for San Pedro, whither the
+Quickstep was bound on that voyage.  As a result the Quickstep was
+advertised to sail from San Francisco on Thursday at two P. M., and
+the agents were notified to commence selling tickets.  Judge of Mr.
+Skinner's perturbation, therefore, when he received the following
+wireless from Matt Peasley at five o'clock on Wednesday:
+
+Bar breaking heavily.  At anchor inside.  Will cross out as soon as I
+judge it safe to do so.
+
+Three hours' delay, already, with the prospects exceedingly bright for
+the Quickstep's lurking inside Humboldt Bar all night!  Mr. Skinner
+saw his passenger traffic gone to glory for that trip, so he sent a
+reply to Matt Peasley by wireless, as follows:
+
+You are advertised to sail from here for San Pedro at two o'clock
+to-morrow.  Hope you will permit nothing to militate against the
+preservation of that schedule.  Answer.
+
+"That's what comes of having an inexperienced man in the vessel," he
+complained to the cashier.  "That fellow Peasley sees a few white caps
+on the bar, and he's afraid to cross out.  Damn!  Kjellin had her
+three years and never hung behind a bar once.  Many a time he's come
+down to Humboldt Bar and found half a dozen steam schooners at anchor
+inside, waiting for a chance to duck out.  Did Kjellin drop anchor
+too?  He did not.  Out he went and bucked right through it."
+
+Mr. Skinner waited at the office until six o'clock to get Matt
+Peasley's answer.  He got it--between the eyes:
+
+I have no jurisdiction over Humboldt Bar.
+
+The Quickstep crossed out next morning, and Mr. Skinner wirelessed her
+master this message:
+
+Your timidity has spoiled San Pedro passenger business.  Drop Eureka
+passengers at Meiggs Wharf and continue your voyage.
+
+Now it does not please any mariner to be told that he is timid, and,
+while Matt Peasley made no reply, nevertheless, he chalked up a black
+mark against Mr. Skinner and commenced to plan against the day of
+reckoning.
+
+That was an unusually severe winter.  Four times Matt Peasley came
+down to the entrance to Humboldt Bar and came to anchor.  Three times
+he tried to cross out and was forced to change his mind; seven times
+did Mr. Skinner upbraid him.  The eighth time that Matt Peasley's
+caution knocked the San Francisco passenger traffic into a deficit,
+Mr. Skinner sent him this message where the Quickstep lay behind Coos
+Bay Bar:
+
+What is the matter with you?  Your predecessor always managed to
+negotiate that bar, and this company expects same of you.
+
+"He's bound to run me out of this ship," Matt soliloquized when he
+read that terse aerogram, "but I promised Cappy I'd stick six months
+and I'll do it.  That penny-pinching Skinner wants me to cut corners
+and get myself into trouble so he can fire me.  I'll not tell him the
+things I want to tell him, so I guess I won't say anything--much."
+
+He didn't.  He just wired Mr. Skinner as follows:
+
+Any time you want to commit suicide I will furnish a pistol.
+
+About the beginning of March Mr. Skinner opened his cold heart long
+enough to let in a little human love and get married, and shortly
+thereafter he found it necessary to make a business trip to the
+redwood mill of the Ricks Lumber and Logging Company on Humboldt Bay.
+He went up on the regular P. C. passenger boat and took his bride with
+him, and while he was at the mill Matt Peasley came nosing in with the
+Quickstep and loaded a cargo of redwood lumber.  He finished loading
+on the same day that Mr. Skinner discovered he had no further excuse
+for remaining away from the office, in consequence of which the latter
+decided to return to San Francisco on the Quickstep.  This for several
+very good reasons:  The food on the Quickstep was better than the food
+on the regular liner, the accommodations were fully as good, the
+vessel was loaded deeply and would ride steadily--and Mr. Skinner and
+his bride would travel without charge.
+
+The sight of the Skinners coming aboard was not a pleasing one to Matt
+Peasley.  He did not like Mr. Skinner well enough to care to eat at
+the same table with him, and he bethought him now of all the mean,
+nagging complaints of the past six months.  In particular he recalled
+Mr. Skinner's instructions to him anent the carrying of dead-head
+passengers--and suddenly he had a brilliant idea.  He sent for his
+wireless operator and ordered him to send this message:
+
+Blue Star Navigation Company, San Francisco, Cal.
+
+Please accept my resignation as master of your steamer Quickstep, said
+resignation to take effect immediately upon my arrival in San
+Francisco.  Kindly have somebody on hand to relieve me.
+
+Matthew Peasley.
+
+Matt had just remembered that his six months in the Quickstep were up.
+His next move was to call on the steward.
+
+"Go into Stateroom 7," he ordered, "and collect fifteen dollars from
+that man and woman in there.  They came aboard without tickets."
+
+Two minutes later the steward was back with word that the passengers
+in question were dead-heads, being none other than the manager of the
+Blue Star Navigation Company and his wife.
+
+"Steward, you go back and tell that man Skinner that Captain Peasley
+never carries any dead-heads on the Quickstep.  Tell him that when
+Captain Peasley wants to carry a guest he pays the guest's passage out
+of his own pocket."
+
+"But he'll fire me, sir."
+
+"Do as I order; he will not fire you.  I'm the only man that has that
+privilege, and I'll exercise it if you don't obey me."
+
+Two more minutes elapsed; then Mr. Skinner presented himself at the
+captain's stateroom.
+
+"Peasley," he said sharply, "what nonsense is this?"
+
+"No dead-heads on this ship, Mr. Skinner.  Your own orders, sir.
+Fifteen dollars, if you please.  You're not my guests."
+
+"Of course," said Mr. Skinner, "I shall do nothing of the sort."
+
+"Then get off the ship."
+
+"Sir, are you crazy?"
+
+"No, I am not; I'm just disgusted with you.  Fifteen dollars here and
+now before I cast off the lines, or I'll run you off the ship.  Don't
+tempt me, Skinner.  If I ever lay violent hands on you there'll be
+work for a doctor."
+
+Mr. Skinner was speechless, but he laid fifteen dollars on the
+captain's desk and returned to his stateroom.  His silence was
+ominous.  Five minutes later the Quickstep backed out from the mill
+wharf and headed down the bay.  As she plowed along, the rain
+commenced falling and a stiff southeast breeze warned Matt that he was
+in for a wet crossing.  He was further convinced of this when the bar
+tug Ranger met him a mile inside the entrance.  She steamed alongside,
+and, as she passed, her captain hailed Matt.
+
+"Don't try to cross out, Peasley," he shouted.  "The bar is breaking."
+
+"The Quickstep doesn't mind it," Matt answered.
+
+"Don't try it, I tell you.  I've been twenty years on Humboldt Bar and
+I know it, Peasley.  I've never seen it so bad as it is this minute."
+
+"Oh, we'll cross out without any fuss," Matt called back cheerfully,
+and rang for full speed ahead.  They were down at the entrance, and
+the Quickstep had just lifted to the dead water from the first big
+green roller, when Mr. Skinner came up and touched Matt Peasley on the
+arm.
+
+"Well, sir?" Matt demanded irritably.
+
+"Drop anchor inside, captain.  That bar is too rough to attempt to
+cross out."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" Matt declared.
+
+"But didn't you hear what that tug-boat captain said?  He said it was
+breaking worse than he had known it for twenty years."
+
+"Bah!  What does he know about it?"
+
+"I don't care what he knows, Captain Peasley; I order you not to
+attempt to cross out.  My wife is aboard and I'll take no chances.
+Come to anchor and wait for the bar to settle."
+
+"You order me?" Matt sneered.  "Who in blazes are you to give orders
+on my ship?  I'm at sea, you understand, and you have nothing to say.
+You'll give your orders and I'll obey them when I'm at the dock, but
+crossing Humboldt Bar, I'm the master of ceremonies.  I can't turn
+back now.  I'd lose my rudder as I came about.  Get out.  Who invited
+you up here?"
+
+"How dare you, sir?" Mr. Skinner cried furiously.  "Man, have you lost
+your mind?  Obey me, I say."
+
+Matt Peasley laughed blithely.  "You miserable, cold-blooded, nagging
+old woman," he said, and took Mr. Skinner by the nape and shook him.
+"I've prayed for this day.  Do you remember the time you wired me at
+Coos Bay that my timidity had lost you some passenger traffic?  You
+impugned my courage then, you whelp, and now I'm going to give you a
+sample of it.  All winter long you've been hounding me, trying to make
+me take chances crossing this bar, just so the vessel might pick up a
+couple of hundred dollars extra in passenger money.  It didn't matter
+to you what risks other men's wives ran when you were snug in your
+office, did it?  You never thought of the passengers I had aboard, or
+the lives of my crew or me, did you?  You wanted me to cut corners and
+risk human lives for the sake of your reputation as an efficient
+manager, you--"  And he shook Mr. Skinner until the manager's teeth
+rattled.  "Now you're aboard yourself with your blushing bride, and
+how do you like it, eh?  How do you like it?  You know all about
+navigation, don't you?  Well, you and your wife are the only
+passengers this trip, and I'm going to give you a taste of salt water
+you'll remember till your dying day," and with a shove he sent Mr.
+Skinner flying aft until he collided with the funnel.
+
+"You're fired!" Skinner screamed, beside himself with fear and rage.
+But Matt Peasley was devoting all of his attention to the Quickstep
+now; and it was well that he did.  The vessel rose on the crest of a
+green comber thirty feet high, and plunged with the speed of an
+express elevator into the valley between that wave and the next.
+
+A tremendous sea boiled in over the knight heads and swept aft,
+burying the Quickstep until nothing showed but her upper works.  But
+she was a sturdy craft and came up from under it, rode the succeeding
+three seas and was comparatively free of water when she shipped the
+next one.  The crest of it came in along the little promenade deck,
+carrying away the companion that led to the bridge, staving in the
+doors and windows of all the staterooms on the port side and carrying
+away the rails and stanchions.  There was two feet of water in
+Stateroom 7, where Mrs. Skinner clung to her husband, screaming
+hysterically.
+
+But despite the awful buffeting she was receiving the Quickstep never
+faltered.  On she plowed, riding the green billows like a gull, and
+shipping a sea only occasionally.  The deckload, double-lashed, held,
+although the deckhouse groaned and twisted until Matt Peasley
+regretted the impulse that had impelled him to do this foolish thing
+for the sake of satisfying a grudge.
+
+"She'll make it, sir," the man at the wheel called up; but Matt's face
+was a little white and serious as he tried to smile back.
+
+Another sea came ramping aboard and snatched the port lifeboat out of
+the davits, smashed in the door of the dining saloon and flooded it,
+gutted the galley, and drove the cook and the steward to the
+protection of the engine room.  The chief called up through the
+speaking tube:
+
+"How's the boss making it, captain?"
+
+"It's a wet passage for him, chief.  I can hear his wife scream every
+time we ship one."
+
+"Serves her right for marrying the pest," the chief growled, and
+turned away.
+
+They crossed out, but at a cost that made Matt Peasley shudder, when
+he left the bridge in charge of the mate and went below to take stock
+of the damage.  A new boat and four days' work for a carpenter
+gang--perhaps eighteen hundred dollars' worth of damage, not counting
+the demurrage!  It was a big price to pay for one brief moment of
+triumph, but Matt Peasley felt that it would have been cheap at twice
+the money.  He passed round on the starboard side of the vessel and
+found Mr. Skinner wet to the skin and shivering.
+
+"We're over," Matt announced cheerfully.  "How did you like the
+going?"
+
+"You villain!" Skinner cried passionately.  "You'll never command
+another ship in the Blue Star fleet, I'll promise you that."
+
+"I know it, Skinner.  But if I were you I'd go down in the engine room
+and dry out while the cook and the steward straighten things round."
+
+"I'll discharge you the moment we tie up at the dock in San
+Francisco," Skinner stormed.
+
+"Oh, no, you won't," Matt assured him.  "I've beaten you to it.  I
+resigned by wireless before we left the dock at Eureka."
+
+That was a long, cold, cheerless trip for the Skinner family.  The
+Quickstep bucked a howling southeaster all the way down the coast, and
+the Skinners were knocked from one end of their wet stateroom to the
+other and slept not a wink.  It was a frightful experience, and to add
+to the discomfort of the trip Mrs. Skinner wept all the way.
+Eventually, however, the Quickstep tied up at the wharf in San
+Francisco, and the minute she was fast Matt Peasley, his accounts all
+made up to date and his clothes and personal effects packed, sprang
+out on the dock.
+
+"There's your ship, Skinner," he called to the general manager.  "I'm
+through."  And he hastened away to the Blue Star office to settle up
+with the cashier, while Mr. Skinner and his bride entered a taxicab
+and were driven to their home.  And two hours later when Mr. Skinner,
+warm and dry at last, came down to the office to attend to the task of
+selecting a new master for the Quickstep, he found Cappy Ricks was
+back from Europe and on the job.
+
+"I hear you've been having some experience," said Cappy cheerfully as
+he shook hands with his manager.  "Peasley was telling me what he did
+to you, and all the disrespectful things he said to you.  Skinner, my
+dear fellow, that was an outrageous way for him to act."
+
+"I fired him," said Skinner waspishly.  "And while we're on the
+subject let me declare myself about this man Peasley; as long as I
+remain in your employ, Mr. Ricks, that man must never command another
+Blue Star vessel.  Do I make myself sufficiently clear?"
+
+"You do, Skinner; you do, indeed," Cappy answered.  "I warned Matt
+that if you ever fired him, I'd have to back you up--and I'll do it,
+Skinner.  I'll sustain your decision, my boy.  As long as you're my
+manager that fellow can never go to sea under the Blue Star flag.  The
+scoundrel!"
+
+"And I wouldn't recommend him to any other owner either," Mr. Skinner
+suggested.
+
+"I'll not, Skinner.  He will never go to sea again.  I'm not going to
+have his license taken away from him--er--  Hum!  Ahem!  Harump-h-h-h!
+But I'll see that he doesn't use it again.  The fact is, Skinner, I'm
+er--getting--old--and--er--you're pretty hard-worked in the lumber
+department, so I've--Hum!  Harump-h-h-h! decided to relieve you of the
+shipping entirely and hire Matt for our port captain.  He's on the pay
+roll at three hundred a month.  And--er--Skinner, try to be friendly
+with the boy for my sake.  The young rascal is engaged to marry my
+daughter, and I--er--it's barely possible he'll take up the
+business--Hum!  Ahem!  I'll stick round another year and break him
+into the landward side of shipping and then, Skinner, d'ye know what
+I'm going to do then?"
+
+"What?" Mr. Skinner asked dully.
+
+"I'm going to learn to play golf," said Cappy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+SKINNER PROPOSES--AND CAPPY RICKS DISPOSES
+
+
+Having, as he thought, evaded the spirit of Mr. Skinner's ultimatum
+while conforming to its literal terms, Cappy Ricks hurried home
+leaving his general manager a stunned and horrified man.  In this
+instance, however, Cappy had erred in his strategy.  Skinner was calm,
+cold-blooded, suave, politic and deferential, but in his kind of fight
+he never bluffed.  He never played his hand until he had sufficient
+trumps to take the odd trick.
+
+He looked ahead now, into the not very distant future, and saw Matt
+Peasley, husband of the heiress to the Ricks millions, giving him
+orders--and the vision did not sit well on the general manager's
+stomach.  Consequently, Mr. Skinner decided for a test of strength at
+once.
+
+Accordingly, when Cappy Ricks came down to the office the following
+morning, Mr. Skinner came into the old fellow's sanctum and requested
+an interview.
+
+"Fire away, my boy," said Cappy amiably, yet with a queer sinking
+feeling in his vitals, for he did not like the look in Skinner's eye;
+and something told him there was blood on the moon.
+
+"With reference to this rowdy, Peasley, whom you tell me you are going
+to make port captain--"
+
+"I also told you, Skinner, my boy, that he is to be my son-in-law,"
+Cappy interrupted, like a good general bringing up his heavy artillery
+prior to ordering a charge.  "I beg of you, Skinner, whatever your
+animosities, to bear in mind the fact that my daughter could not
+possibly engage herself to a rowdy."
+
+"Out of respect to you and Miss Florence I shall not indulge in
+personalities, sir," Mr. Skinner replied smilingly, and Cappy
+shuddered, for Mr. Skinner never smiled in a fight unless he had the
+situation well in hand.  "I have merely called to tell you that I have
+invested seventy-five cents of my salary in a stout hickory
+pick-handle, and the next time Captain Matt Peasley enters my office I
+shall test the quality of the said pick-handle over his head.  I don't
+care if he is engaged to your daughter; the minute you bring that man
+into this office I go out.  You shall have my resignation instantly.
+That decision, Mr. Ricks, is final and irrevocable."  And without
+giving Cappy an instant for argument Mr. Skinner bowed himself out.
+
+A month and Cappy Ricks remained minus his port captain; Mr. Skinner
+was still strongly entrenched in his job as general manager.  It was a
+hard hand to beat, for the fact of the matter was that Cappy Ricks
+simply could not afford to dispense with Mr. Skinner.  The man was too
+honest, too conscientious, too industrious, too brilliant, too
+efficient, not to be reckoned with.  To part with Skinner was like
+parting with a dividend-producing gold mine; it was equivalent to
+unloading on Cappy's shoulders again the burden of work and worry that
+would have killed him ten years ago had he not surrendered it to
+Skinner, who handled it as a juggler handles nine balls.  Moreover,
+Skinner knew all of the business secrets of the Ricks Lumber and
+Logging Company and the Blue Star Navigation Company--why, he was an
+integral part of the business; and, lastly, Cappy was fond of the man.
+
+Skinner had come to him as office boy at the tender age of ten--and
+that was twenty-five years before.  A daily association for
+twenty-five years would make a human being like Cappy fond of the
+devil himself; and, barring the fact that he was cold-blooded, Skinner
+was a fairly likeable chap, and devoted, body and soul to Cappy Ricks.
+The longer Cappy pondered the thought of asserting his authority as
+boss and defying Skinner, the more impossible the alternative became.
+Also the longer he thought of having Matt Peasley kept out of the
+business by Skinner, the higher rose his gorge, for Cappy had yearned
+for a son like Matt Peasley and been denied.  Now when he had planned
+successfully to do the next best thing and have Matt for a son-in-law,
+to be blocked by Skinner was unbearable.  All Cappy could do was to
+search vainly for an "out," and in the interim, whenever he met Matt
+Peasley at his home, he carefully avoided all reference to Matt's
+future in the Blue Star employ for which, by the way, Matt was
+eternally grateful.  He did not care to talk business with Cappy for a
+month as yet.  He was too happy with Cappy's daughter.
+
+Another month passed.  Cappy grew thin and lost his relish for his
+food.  Then Florence, being a woman, began to see, looming out of the
+rose-tinted mist of her happy dreams, a huge interrogation mark.
+
+She wondered what her father intended doing for her future husband;
+and since she was accustomed to bossing her parent she spoke to Cappy
+about it, thereby increasing his mental agony.
+
+About the same time Matt Peasley commenced to wonder also, but forbore
+to mention the subject to Cappy.  Instead, he went down to the Red
+Stack people and got himself a job skippering a tug; and great was his
+joy thereat, for the wages were fully as good as he had enjoyed on the
+Quickstep, and he was enabled to spend nearly every night in port.
+The two months of idleness, albeit the happiest he had ever known, had
+commenced to pall on him, and he wanted to be up and doing once more.
+Also, being a man, he sensed something of the embarrassment of Cappy's
+position, and, manlike, decided to relieve the old fellow of that
+embarrassment.  Matt concluded that he would retain his job as master
+of the tug Sea Fox for a few months--say six--and then ask Cappy Ricks
+for twenty thousand dollars, which amount would by that time be to his
+credit on the Blue Star books by reason of his half-interest in the
+seventy-five-dollar-a-day profit he and Cappy had annexed when
+rechartering the steamer Unicorn.  With that amount of money in hand,
+plus the savings from his salary, he planned to marry Cappy's daughter
+and go into business for himself as a ship, freight and marine
+insurance broker.
+
+Mr. Skinner heard of Matt Peasley's appointment as master of the tug
+Sea Fox several hours before the same information reached Matt
+himself.  The general manager of the tugboat company, scanning Matt's
+application and having a vacancy to fill, called up Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Say, Skinner," he said, "I have an application for a job as master
+for one of our tugs from Captain Matthew Peasley.  He tells me he was
+a couple of years under the Blue Star flag, from A. B. to master of
+steam and sail, with an unlimited license.  Is he a good man?"
+
+"We never had a more capable skipper in our employ," said Mr. Skinner
+truthfully.
+
+"Why did you let him go then?"
+
+"He resigned."
+
+"Under fire?"
+
+"No, he quit voluntarily."
+
+"Honest?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Then what's wrong with him?"
+
+"He doesn't like me.  But he's capable and fearless and a devil on
+wheels.  He'll take a ship anywhere and bring her out again whole."
+
+"Then he's my huckleberry.  That's the kind of man for a tugboat
+skipper," was the reply, and Matt Peasley had the job, greatly to the
+joy of Mr. Skinner, who realized now that his ultimatum to Cappy Ricks
+had been a knockout blow.  Cappy had surrendered, and the rowdy Matt,
+having given up hope of a snug berth as port captain of the Blue Star
+Navigation Company, had in despair sought a job with a tugboat
+company.
+
+Mr. Skinner was so happy he shelved his office dignity long enough to
+whistle a popular ballad that had been running through his mind of
+late.  All too gladly had he recommended Matt Peasley for that tugboat
+job!  He would have employed anything, short of dishonorable methods,
+to rid the Blue Star of that incubus!
+
+Cappy Ricks almost wept with rage when his daughter informed him that
+Matt had gone back to salt water.  She was a little indignant over it,
+and demanded a show-down from her unhappy father, who looked at her
+miserably and said he'd think it over.
+
+He did.  Every afternoon, upon his return from luncheon he slid down
+on his spine in his upholstered swivel chair, draped his old shanks
+over his desk, dropped his chin on his breast, closed his eyes and
+went into a clinch with the awful problem, with all its dips, spurs
+and angles.  Save for the nervous clasping and unclasping of his hands
+one would have thought him sound asleep.
+
+For a month no gleam of light filtered through the deep gloom of the
+old gentleman's predicament.  A dozen times had he reached forth to
+press the push-button on his desk, summon Skinner and force the latter
+to do one of two things; recede from his position or resign as general
+manager.  Ten times he had paused with his finger on the push-button.
+He simply could NOT afford to dispense with Skinner!  The eleventh
+time, however, grown desperate from much brooding over his unhappy
+lot, Cappy pressed the button.
+
+"Send Mr. Skinner in," he commanded bravely to the boy who answered
+his summons.
+
+Mr. Skinner entered and stood awaiting Cappy's pleasure.  On the
+instant the old fellow was overcome by panic.  Frantically he sought
+an "out."
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," he purred, "has it occurred to you that young
+Tommy, the office boy, has been here long enough, and behaved himself
+well enough, to merit a raise of about ten dollars a month?"
+
+Mr. Skinner was a natural conservative and considerable of a
+pessimist.
+
+"Well, I daresay he has, although I hadn't given the matter any
+thought, sir.  However, the way lumber has been selling the past few
+months, we ought to be cutting salaries instead of raising them."
+
+"I know, Skinner, I know.  But a boy needs some encouragement; he has
+to have some concrete evidence of appreciation, er--er--attend to it,
+Skinner, my boy, attend to it."
+
+Mr. Skinner nodded and retired, leaving Cappy to grit his teeth and
+curse himself for a poltroon.  "It's certainly hell when a man of my
+age and financial rating stands between his love and duty," he
+mourned.  "Darn that fellow Skinner.  If my bluff should fail to work
+and he got on his high horse and quit, I'd have to climb off my high
+horse and beg him to return to work.  And he knows it.  He knows I've
+been taking it easy so long I never could bring myself to take up the
+burden of active business again.  Money!  What does money mean if it
+can't buy happiness?  Drat that devilish Skinner.  I wish to jiminy he
+had the burden of my dollars--"
+
+He paused, overcome by a sudden brilliant thought.  "Bully for you,
+Alden P., you old, three-ply, copper-riveted, reinforced,
+star-spangled jack-ass!" he murmured.  "Why didn't you think of it
+before and save yourself all this grief?"
+
+His hand shot out once more to the push-button.  "Send in Mr. Hankins,
+sonny," he ordered the office boy.
+
+Mr. Hankins was the cashier; also secretary of all of Cappy's
+companies, of which Mr. Skinner was first vice president.  He entered
+and stood deferentially beside Cappy's desk.
+
+"Hankins, my dear boy, bring me the stock certificates for my holdings
+in the Ricks Lumber and Logging Company and the Blue Star Navigation
+Company.  I am going to indorse them, after which I wish you would
+reissue the stock to me, less one hundred shares of each in the name
+of Mr. Skinner.  Say nothing to Mr. Skinner about this and bring the
+new certificates to me immediately."
+
+When Hankins had complied with his request Cappy Ricks placed the
+Skinner certificates in his pocket and went uptown to the office of
+his attorney.  He returned to his office within an hour and
+immediately sent for Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," began Cappy affably, "sit down.  I want to
+have a very serious talk with you."
+
+"Nothing wrong, I trust," Skinner began apprehensively, for Cappy's
+air was very portentous.
+
+"If there was," Cappy snapped, "you wouldn't be here to-day.  Some
+other fellow would be holding down your job, and, I dare say, giving
+poor satisfaction--by the way, my dear Skinner, something which you
+have never done."
+
+Mr. Skinner flushed pleasurably and thanked his employer.
+
+"Some twenty-five years ago," Cappy continued, "you entered my employ
+as a spindle-legged office boy.  To-day you are my general manager,
+and a rattling good one, too, even if we do have our little run-in
+together every so often.  We mustn't pay any attention to that,
+however, for a fight is good for a man, Skinner.  I maintain that it
+brings out all of his virtues and vices where one can have an
+unobstructed view of them.  However, passing that, I decided a long
+time ago, Skinner, that you are entitled to more than a mere salary--"
+
+"My salary has been eminently satisfactory, sir--" Mr. Skinner began.
+
+"Don't be an ass, Skinner," Cappy interrupted tartly.  "I wouldn't
+give two hoots in hell for a satisfied man, unless he's his own
+man--understand.  You should have a more vital interest in the Ricks
+Lumber and Logging Company and the Blue Star Navigation Company.  We
+always make our skippers own a piece of the vessels they command, so
+they will not be tempted to rob us, for in robbing us they rob
+themselves.  Consequently, thinking it over, Skinner, I have decided
+to make you own a piece of both the companies you manage, not because
+you may rob them but because I want to reward you for faithful
+service.  I had planned to do this in my will, but I feel so healthy
+lately I think I'll live a long time yet, and there isn't any real
+sense in keeping you waiting.  What is the book valuation of the Ricks
+L. & L. stock?"
+
+"Three hundred eighty-seven thirteen, according to the last annual
+report," replied Skinner glibly.  His eyes glistened.
+
+"And the Blue Star stock?"
+
+"Four hundred thirty-two twenty-seven."
+
+"Hump!  Harump-h-h!  It will be worth more when the Panama Canal is
+opened.  We'll have a crack at the Atlantic Seaboard market with our
+Pacific Coast lumber, and the water freight will knock the rail rate
+silly.  Besides, I'm going to buy up a couple of large freighters, or
+build them, and that stock of yours will pay dividends then.  I'll
+soak you four hundred per share for the Blue Star stock.  Is that
+satisfactory?"
+
+Nobody knew better than Mr. Skinner the fact that the Blue Star stock
+at the book valuation was appraised very conservatively.  He nodded.
+
+"Lumber market's up and down, down and up, and we never know where we
+stand.  Give you that at two-fifty a share.  Want it?"
+
+"I should say I do!" Skinner gasped.
+
+"Then you owe me sixty-five thousand dollars.  I'll take your
+promissory note for it at five per cent., and you can pay the note out
+of your salary and the dividends.  You'll be in the clear in ten years
+at the very latest; the stock I'm selling you now will be worth a
+hundred thousand--with your management.  Here's the contract, which
+embodies a promissory note.  Sign it, endorse the stock to me to
+secure the payment of the note, and then clear out of here.  Not a
+peep out of you, sir, not a peep.  If you say 'Thank you' I'll change
+my mind about selling."
+
+Mr. Skinner's hand trembled a little as he wrote his name across the
+backs of the stock certificates and appended the same clear, concise
+signature to the note.  Silently he wrung Cappy's hand.
+
+"Get out," rasped Cappy.  Mr. Skinner got out.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+CAPPY'S PLANS DEMOLISHED
+
+
+Four more months passed, and peace reigned in the offices of the Blue
+Star Navigation Company.  Matt Peasley's name had never been mentioned
+in Mr. Skinner's presence since that dark day when he had ventured,
+for the first time in his career, to lay down the law to Cappy Ricks.
+The pick-handle still reposed behind Skinner's desk, but that was
+merely because he had forgotten all about it, and nobody ever touched
+any of his property without his permission.  Not once had Matt
+Peasley's cheerful countenance darkened the Skinner horizon.
+
+This, then, was the condition of affairs when the office boy carried
+to Mr. Skinner a piece of disquieting information--to wit, that
+Captain Matt Peasley was without and desired to hold speech with Mr.
+Ricks.
+
+"Tell him Mr. Ricks is too busy to see him," Skinner ordered.  Not
+having heard anything of Matt for six months he concluded that the
+latter's affair with the boss' daughter had languished and died a
+natural death; hence he felt that he could defy Matt with impunity.
+Judge of his surprise, therefore, when a heavy hand was laid on his
+shoulder later and Matt Peasley stood glaring down at him.
+
+"Well, sir!" said Skinner coolly.
+
+"I heard you had a pick-handle waiting here for me," Matt replied
+evenly, "so I just dropped in to tell you that if you ever pull a
+pick-handle on me I'll take it away from you and ram it down your
+throat.  That's all I have to say to you, Mr. Skinner.  If, the next
+time I call, at Mr. Ricks' invitation, to see him, you intercept my
+message and try to block my game--"
+
+The great Peasley hand closed over Mr. Skinner's neck and felt of it
+tentatively.
+
+"Ouch!" gasped Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Admit the brother," Matt called to an imaginary sentry behind Cappy's
+door.  "He has given the password.  The lodge has been duly opened and
+we are now ready for business."
+
+He smiled at Mr. Skinner and passed on into Cappy Ricks' office.
+
+"Well, Matt," the latter hailed him pleasantly, "it's been a long time
+since I've seen you in this office."
+
+"And it'll be a long time till you see me here again, sir," Matt
+retorted pleasantly.  "I was about to call on you when your message
+reached me.  So suppose you tell me your business first. Then I'll
+tell you mine."
+
+"No, you won't, Matt," Cappy challenged him, "because hereafter you're
+not going to have any business unless I have a finger in it too.
+Matt, my son, do you recall the day you quit the Quickstep?"
+
+"With pleasure," Matt assured him whimsically.
+
+"You're vindictive; but no matter.  Skinner declared you should never
+again command a Blue Star ship while he was in my employ, and I said,
+by George, that was right--you shouldn't.  I said I was going to make
+you our port captain, and eventually place you in charge of the
+shipping after I had broken you in."
+
+"I have a curiosity, sir, to know why you didn't go through with that
+program."
+
+"Skinner wouldn't let me--said he'd quit if I did, and I just couldn't
+afford to lose him, Matt.  However, I have all that fixed up now, so
+you quit that tugboat job of yours and come to work here as soon as
+you can.  I could have put you to work three months ago, right after I
+sewed Skinner up, but I thought I'd wait a little while just to save
+poor Skinner's face."  Cappy commenced to chuckle softly.  "In-fer-nal
+rascal!" he declared.  "He had me where the hair is short, Matt; he
+had me where I dassen't defy my own general manager!  Yes, sir, that
+was the long and short of it.  I dassen't call his bluff, because he
+doesn't bluff worth a cent, and I happen to know some of my
+competitors would like to get him away from me.  A good man is always
+in demand, Matt; never forget that.  You see, Skinner has been
+carrying the burden of this business for the past ten years
+practically, and he threatened to toss that burden back on me.  Well,
+if he had, Matt, I just couldn't have carried it without competent
+help--and by the time I had competent help broken in they'd be
+measuring me for a tombstone."
+
+"How did you whip him into line?" Matt demanded.
+
+"Just like spearing fish in a dry lake, boy," Cappy chuckled.  "I just
+sold Mr. Skinner part of that burden, and now he has to carry it all
+until he dies, because if he drops it he loses what I sold him.  Only
+one way to whip that boy into line, Matt, and that is to pelt him with
+dollars."
+
+"But I do not see how that affects me," Matt answered.
+
+"You don't, eh?  Why, you're the port captain of the Blue Star
+Navigation Company, you-you-you bonehead, and Skinner has to stand for
+you now whether he likes it or not.  He'll not sacrifice his future to
+vent his grudge against you, because he is a business man, Matt, and
+he knows it's mighty poor business to bite off his nose to spite his
+face.  So you just come to work."
+
+Matt Peasley beamed across at his future father-in-law.
+
+"That was well done, sir," he said, "and I wish I had known you were
+going to do it.  I would have saved you the trouble, because, you see,
+I never intended to go to work for you in this office anyhow."
+
+"The devil you say!" Cappy interrupted.  "Well, you just put some
+reverse English on those intentions of yours, my boy.  I know what's
+good for you."
+
+But Matt Peasley only shook his head.
+
+"I can't do it, sir," he said.  "While deeply appreciative of all you
+want to do for me, the fact is, if I'm going to marry your
+daughter--and I am--I'm not going to do it on your money and be
+dependent upon you for a job.  I'll be my own man, Mr. Ricks.  I never
+ask odds of any man, and I don't like to work for a relative."
+
+"Damn your Yankee independence," snapped Cappy angrily.  "Why do you
+oppose me?"
+
+"Because I'll not have anybody saying:  'There goes Matt Peasley.  He
+fell into a good thing.  Yes, indeed!  Used to be a common A. B. until
+Alden P. Ricks' daughter fell in love with him--and of course after
+that he went right up the line in the Blue Star Navigation Company.
+He's a lucky stiff.'"
+
+"What do you care what people say?  I know what I want."
+
+"I do care what they say, and I care what I feel.  I want to fight my
+own way.  I want to make a wad of money and build up a business of my
+own--"
+
+"You're crazy!  Why, here's one ready-made, and it will stand all
+kinds of building up--"
+
+"Then let Skinner build it.  I'll build my own. I do not want anybody
+to think I married your daughter for your money."
+
+"Matt, you poor, chuckleheaded boy, listen to me. I intend doing for
+you--"
+
+"And that," roared Matt Peasley, smiting the desk, "is the very reason
+why I shall not permit you to do anything for me.  That's final, Mr.
+Ricks.  I hope you will realize it's useless to argue with me."
+
+"I ought to by this time," Cappy replied bitterly.  "Very well, I've
+told you my business with you.  Suppose you state your business with
+me."
+
+"I'd like to draw twenty thousand dollars from my credit on the Blue
+Star books."
+
+"Huh!  So you want to dig into that money the recharter of the Unicorn
+is bringing you, eh, Matt?"
+
+"If you can spare it, Mr. Ricks."
+
+"Of course I can spare it--only I'll not.  If you want that money,
+Matt, sue for it; and since you haven't any documents to prove you
+have it coming to you, I suppose you will agree with me that a suit
+would be useless expenditure of time, money and energy."
+
+"Then you will not give me the money, sir?" Matt Peasley demanded.
+
+"Not a red," said Cappy calmly.  "We've fought this whole matter out
+before, so why argue?"
+
+"Why, indeed," Matt answered, and reached for his hat.  He was
+fighting mad and desired to go away before he quarreled with Cappy.
+
+"I'll go downstairs to the cigar stand and shake you the dice, one
+flop, to see whether you go into business for yourself or come to work
+for me," Cappy pleaded.
+
+Matt came to him and placed his great hands on the old man's
+shoulders.
+
+"You're the finest man I ever knew, Mr. Ricks," he said, "and you're
+the meanest man I ever knew, so I'll not shake dice with you.  You're
+too fond of having your own way--"
+
+"Yes, and you're the same, blast you!" Cappy shrilled, losing his
+temper entirely.  "Wait till you're my age.  There won't be any
+standing you at all.  Get out!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+A GIFT FROM THE GODS
+
+
+The barkentine Retriever, lumber laden from Astoria to San Francisco,
+lay under the lee of Point Reyes in a dead calm.  It was a beautiful,
+moonlit night, with the sea as smooth as a fishpond, and Captain
+Michael J. Murphy, albeit a trifle surprised at his proximity to the
+California coast--the result of three days and nights of thick fog,
+which had suddenly lifted--was not particularly worried.  At eight
+o'clock he turned in, after warning the mate to call him in case the
+Retriever should drift inshore.
+
+"Never fear, sir," the mate replied.  "We'll have a puff of wind about
+daylight at the latest, and the current sets north and south here
+rather than toward the beach."
+
+For two hours after Captain Murphy had retired the Retriever rose and
+fell gently on the slightest swell, her booms and yards swinging idly
+amidships, her sails and cordage slatting listlessly as the vessel
+rolled.
+
+Suddenly the lookout shouted:  "Steamer on the port bow!" and the
+mate, following the direction indicated, made out the red and green
+sidelights and the single white light at the short masthead of the
+approaching vessel.
+
+"Tug," he announced to the man at the wheel.  "Good enough!  The
+lookout at Point Reyes reported us, and the owners have sent a tug out
+to snake us in."
+
+The mate's prognostication was correct in some particulars, for in
+about half an hour the tug steamed slowly alongside the Retriever and
+hailed her.
+
+"Barkentine, ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!  Retriever, of the Blue Star, Astoria for San Francisco."
+
+"Sea Fox, of the Red Stack Line.  Is Captain Murphy on deck?"
+
+"No, but I'll send for him," the mate shouted, and forthwith sent a
+man below to rout out the skipper.  When Murphy came on deck and
+hailed the tug he nearly fainted at the information that came floating
+across the water.
+
+"Murphy, this is Matt Peasley speaking."
+
+"Not Matt Peasley that used to command this old box--"
+
+"Don't speak disrespectfully of my first command, Mike--"
+
+"And you're only a tug captain--a dirty, thieving, piratical towboat
+man, holding up every honest skipper that pokes his nose into San
+Francisco Bay.  Matt, I'm ashamed of you.  How are you anyhow?"
+
+"Fine, Mike.  Want a tow?"
+
+"I don't need one; I'll have a bit of breeze before long.  I'm
+independent of you!"
+
+The tug crept in closer.  "Don't be foolish, Mike; better let me slip
+you a line."
+
+"How much will it cost, Matt?  None of your highway robbery now.  Be
+easy on the Retriever for old times' sake."
+
+"A thousand dollars," Matt Peasley answered pleasantly, and was
+rewarded with a volley of oaths from Mike Murphy and his crew.
+
+"You're a thief!" yelled Murphy.
+
+"And you're a fool, Mike.  You're not more than two miles off the
+breakers, you're in a calm that may last two days, and when the tide
+is at flood you'll set in on the beach as sure as death and taxes--and
+then I'll have a salvage job that will cost your owners not one
+thousand but ten."
+
+"You go to the devil!" was Murphy's reply to this, and the Sea Fox
+dropped astern and came round on the starboard bow of the Retriever.
+In she backed, a foot at a time, and Captain Murphy, up on the
+topgallant fo'castle, was within easy conversational distance of Matt
+Peasley, standing on the grating at the stern of the Sea Fox.
+
+"Better grab this heaving line, Mike," Matt suggested.
+
+"Come aboard and have a drink, Matt, but leave your line behind you,"
+Murphy answered hospitably.
+
+The Sea Fox drifted down fifteen or twenty feet, swung slowly, headed
+out to sea, and then backed gingerly in until her stern was within a
+few feet of the side of the Retriever.
+
+"Hey, you!  What d'ye mean to do?  Back into her?" yelled Matt Peasley
+to his mate.  "Full speed ahead!  Quick!"
+
+A bell jangled in the bowels of the Sea Fox, her great screw churned
+the water and she shot out from the Retriever.
+
+"That's right!  Go clear over to China, and expect me to haggle with
+this man through the megaphone, eh?" Matt roared.  "Back up again!"
+
+"I tell you, Matt, there isn't the slightest use hanging round for
+us," Murphy warned the towboat skipper.  "I wouldn't let the ship be
+held up by anybody, least of all a towboat man."
+
+"Well, when the lookout on Point Reyes telephoned into our office that
+the Retriever was inside the Point, I made up my mind I'd come out and
+get her, and I don't purpose being disappointed," Matt replied
+jokingly.  "I'll just wait until you drift into the breakers, and then
+you'll do business with me, never fear."
+
+"G'wan!" snorted Murphy.  "How's Cappy Ricks, the old villain?"
+
+"He's fine, Mike.  He wanted me to work for him, but I don't like his
+general manager--Mr. Olson, full speed ahead or you'll smash our stern
+against this barkentine.  Steady!  That's better.  Astern a trifle.
+Steady!  Mike, how've you been since I saw you last?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+A DIRTY YANKEE TRICK
+
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy Ricks, "I was called out of my bed at five
+o'clock this morning by the night operator at the Merchants' Exchange.
+He told me our Retriever was in the breakers just south of Point
+Reyes, but that a tug was standing by.  What have you heard since?"
+
+"She drifted in there in a calm last night, sir," Mr. Skinner replied.
+"Fortunately the Point Reyes lookout had reported her early yesterday
+evening, and one of the Red Stack tugs--the Sea Fox--took a chance and
+went out seeking.  Lucky thing for us--"
+
+"The tug hauled her off then?"
+
+"Got a line aboard just in time.  I had a telephone message from
+Captain Murphy at Meiggs Wharf ten minutes ago.  The Retriever is
+anchored in the fairway."
+
+"What tug did you say it was?" Cappy queried.
+
+"The Sea Fox."
+
+"That's Matt Peasley's command," Cappy mused.  "Lucky?  I should say
+we are!  It's up to the master of the tug very frequently whether,
+under such conditions, his task has been a mere towage job at the
+going rates or a salvage proposition to be settled in court.  I dare
+say Matt will give us the benefit of the doubt and call it towage."
+
+"Don't deceive yourself!" Skinner snapped.  "It's salvage; Murphy said
+so.  After he got close in Peasley refused to name a price and came
+aboard and made Murphy sign a paper acknowledging that his ship was in
+distress and dire peril, before he would even put a line aboard him--"
+
+"Wow!  Wow!  The tugboat company will libel the ship now, and sue us
+for fifty thousand dollars' salvage on vessel and cargo," and Cappy
+groaned, for he owned both.  "By George!" he continued.  "I didn't
+think Matt would do anything like that to me.  No, sir!  If anybody
+had told me that boy could be such an ingrate I'd have told him--"
+
+A youth entered Cappy's office uninvited.
+
+"Captain Peasley to see you, sir," he said.
+
+"Show the infernal fellow in," rasped Cappy, and Matt Peasley stalked
+into the room.
+
+"I should like to see you privately, Mr. Ricks," he announced, and
+cast a significant glance at Skinner, who took the hint and left the
+room at once.
+
+Matt sat down.  "Well," he said, "I guess the tug Sea Fox and owners,
+together with her doughty skipper and crew, will finger some of your
+hard-earned dollars before long, Mr. Ricks.  I pulled your barkentine
+Retriever out of the breakers this morning.  In fifteen minutes she
+would have been on the beach and a total loss--and I have a document,
+signed by Captain Murphy and his mates, to prove it.  I offered the
+pig-headed fellow a tow at ten o'clock the night before, but he
+declined it--trying to save a few dollars, of course--so when I had
+him where he had to have my services--"
+
+"Well!" Cappy snapped, "send your owners round and we'll try to settle
+out of court.  If they're hogs we'll fight 'em, that's all."
+
+"And if you do you'll get licked.  We'll get a quarter of the value of
+that vessel and her cargo.  She's easily worth fifty thousand dollars
+and her cargo is worth thirty thousand more--that's eighty thousand,
+and a quarter of eighty thousand dollars is twenty thousand."
+
+"You'll have to fight for it, I tell you," Cappy reiterated.
+
+"There is no necessity for a fight, Mr. Ricks.  It all rests with me
+whether this is a salvage job or just a plain towing job at the
+customary rates."
+
+Cappy looked at his ex-skipper keenly.
+
+"Matt," he charged, "you've got a scheme.  You want something."
+
+"I do; I want to save you a lot of fuss and worry and expense.  In
+return I want you to do something for me."
+
+"I'll do it, Matt.  What is the program?"
+
+"Give me that twenty thousand dollars you justly owe me--twenty
+thousand dollars I have to my credit on your books, which you are
+withholding just because you have the power to withhold it."
+
+"And in return--"
+
+"I'll tear up the deadly document I extorted from Murphy and report a
+mere towage job to my owners."
+
+Cappy pressed the push-button and a boy appeared.
+
+"Tell Mr. Skinner I want to see him," he ordered, and an instant later
+Mr. Skinner entered.  "Skinner," said Cappy, "draw a check for twenty
+thousand in favor of Matt Peasley, and charge it to his account."
+
+"And then send it over to the bank and certify it," Matt added,
+"because before I get through with you, Mr. Ricks, you'll be tempted
+to stop payment on it, if I know you--and I think I do."
+
+Half an hour later Cappy handed Matt Peasley, a certified check for
+twenty thousand dollars, and in exchange the latter handed Cappy the
+only proof the Red Stack people would have had, over and above the
+contradictory testimony of the crews of the respective vessels, that
+the services of their tug constituted salvage and not towage.  Cappy
+read it, tore it into shreds and glared at Matt Peasley.
+
+"Matt," he said very solemnly, "I'm glad this thing happened.  I've
+always had a good opinion of you, but now I know that though you have
+many excellent qualities you do not possess that quality which above
+all others I require in an employee or a son-in-law.
+
+"You aren't loyal.  You had the sweetest case of salvage against our
+vessel that any man could go into court with, and you kicked it away
+like that, just for your own selfish ends.  You sacrificed your
+shipmates, who would have been awarded a pro rata of the salvage, and
+you were false to the trust your owners reposed in you."
+
+Cappy stood up, his face pale with fury, and shook an admonitory
+finger under Matt Peasley's nose.
+
+"That act, sir, is an index of your true character," he thundered.  "A
+master who will deceive his owners, who will be false to their
+interests, is a scoundrel, sir; do you hear me?--a scoundrel.  You
+will oblige me, sir, by refraining from any attentions to my daughter
+in the future.  To think that you have descended to such a petty,
+miserable subterfuge to trick me and rob your owners!  Thank God, I
+have found you out in time!"
+
+"Yes, isn't it fortunate?" Matt answered humorously.  "And if you get
+any angrier you'll bust an artery and die."
+
+"Out of my office!" Cappy raved; for though he was a business man, and
+never hesitated to do business in a businesslike way, he was the soul
+of business honor, and in all his life he had never taken a mean or
+unfair advantage of those who trusted him.  The knowledge that Matt
+Peasley had done such a thing filled him with rage not unmixed with
+sorrow.
+
+"I'll be gone in a minute," Matt replied gently; "only before I go
+permit me to tell you something, and on my honor as a man and a sailor
+I assure you I speak the truth.  That wasn't a salvage job at all."
+
+"What?"
+
+Matt repeated the statement.  Cappy blinked and clawed at his
+whiskers.
+
+"Oh," he said presently, "I had forgotten that you and Captain Murphy
+were once shipmates.  And so that fellow Murphy stood in with you to
+work a hocuspocus game on me, eh?" he thundered.  "By Godfrey, I'll
+fire him for it!" and he rushed to the office door, opened it and
+called to Skinner: "Skinner, Murphy is to be fired.  Attend to it."
+Then he closed the door again and faced Matt Peasley.
+
+"Murphy is to be reinstated," Matt assured Cappy, "for the reason that
+Murphy was in deadly earnest when he signed that paper.  In five
+minutes he would have been a skipper without a ship, and he knew it.
+If you fire Murphy you do a fine man a terrible injustice."
+
+"Well, how in blue blazes did he get so close to the beach and let
+himself into your clutches?" Cappy raved.
+
+"He couldn't answer that question, sir.  He doesn't know.  He thinks
+the current set him in there.  It didn't.  I set him in there."
+
+"You set him in?" Cappy queried incredulously.
+
+"I set him in.  I kept backing up on his starboard counter, ostensibly
+to dicker with him, and as soon as I had the stern of my tug within a
+few feet of the Retriever I'd signal my mate at the wheel, he'd give
+the engineer full speed ahead--why you have no idea of the force of
+the quick water thrown back from that big towing propeller of the Sea
+Fox.  The rush of it just swung the Retriever's nose slowly toward the
+beach and kicked her ahead fifteen or twenty feet, and then her sheer
+momentum carried her thirty yards farther.  By that time I was backed
+up to her again, bargaining with Murphy, and ready for another kick.
+It was easier after the flood tide set in, and I kept at her all night
+long, and gradually kicked her into the breakers, where I wanted her.
+I knew Murphy would listen to reason then.  So you see, Mr. Ricks, it
+wasn't a salvage job, and I didn't betray my owners at all--"
+
+"You Yankee thief!" Cappy yelled, and dashed at Matt, to enfold the
+son-in-law-to-be in a paternal embrace.  "Oh, Matt, my boy, why do you
+want to be a tugboat man when I need a man with your brains?  Why
+don't you be sensible and listen to reason?"
+
+Matt held the old man off at arm's length and grinned at him
+affectionately.
+
+"It's worth twenty thousand dollars to get the better of you, sir," he
+said.
+
+Cappy sat down very suddenly.
+
+"Ah, yes," he said.  "Speaking of money reminds me:  What do you
+intend doing with that twenty thousand dollars?"
+
+"Well, I thought at first I'd go into the shipping business for
+myself--"
+
+"Skiffs or gasoline launches--which?" Cappy twitted him.
+
+"But you seem bent on having your way, and Florry is making such a
+fuss, I suppose I'll have to give in to you after all."
+
+Matt stepped to the door, opened it and called:  "Mr. Skinner!"
+
+Mr. Skinner looked up from his desk by the window.  "Well, sir!" he
+demanded haughtily.
+
+"Murphy is not to be fired," Matt answered.
+
+"Indeed!  And by whose orders?"
+
+"Mine!  I'm the port captain of the Blue Star Navigation Company, and,
+beginning now, I'm going to do all the hiring and firing of captains."
+
+Mr. Skinner turned pale.  He started from his chair and made two steps
+toward Cappy Ricks' office, firmly resolved to present his resignation
+then and there.  At the door, however, he thought better of it,
+hesitated, returned to his desk and sat down again, for he had
+suddenly remembered, and, remembering, discovered that Cappy Ricks had
+laid upon him a burden that must be reckoned with--the burden of his
+own future.  He flushed and bit his lips; then, feeling Matt Peasley's
+eyes boring into the small of his back, he turned and said:
+
+"I have every reason to believe, Captain Peasley, that you are the
+right man in the right place."
+
+Matt advanced upon him and held out his hand.
+
+"Mr. Ricks has always bragged that you could think quicker and act
+quicker in an emergency than any man he ever knew.  He's right, you
+can.  Suppose we bury that pick-handle, Mr. Skinner?"
+
+Mr. Skinner's lips twitched in a wry smile, but he took Matt Peasley's
+hand and wrung it heartily, not because he loved Matt Peasley or ever
+would, but because he had a true appreciation of Abraham Lincoln's
+philosophy to the effect that a house divided against itself must
+surely fall.  "I'm sure we'll get along famously together," he said.
+
+"You know it," Matt answered heartily, and stepped back into Cappy's
+office.
+
+"Well," said Cappy, "that was mighty well done, Matt.  Thank you.  So
+you think you'll quit the Sea Fox and be my port captain, eh?"
+
+"I think so, sir."
+
+"Well, I do not, Matt.  The fact of the matter is, your business
+education is now about to commence, and about two minutes ago I
+suddenly decided that you might as well pay for it with your own
+money.  I have no doubt such a course will meet with the approval of
+your independent spirit anyhow.  You're a little too uppish yet, Matt.
+You must be chastened, and the only way to chasten a man and make him
+humble is to turn him loose to fight with the pack for a while.
+Consequently I'm going to turn you loose, Matt; there are some wolves
+along California Street that will take your twenty thousand away from
+you so fast that you won't know it's going till it's gone.  But the
+loss will do you a heap of good--and I guess Florry can wait a while."
+
+He paused and eyed Matt meditatively for fully a minute.
+
+"And you kicked my barkentine ashore with the quick water from your
+tug's propeller," he mused aloud.  "Got her where you wanted her--and
+Murphy didn't suspect!  He laid it to the current!"  Cappy shook his
+head.  "A dirty Yankee trick," he continued, "and I love you for
+it--in fact, it breaks my heart not to make good that grandstand play
+you just pulled on Skinner, but I've changed my mind about hiring you
+yet.  I'm just going to sit back and have some fun watching you defend
+that little old twenty-thousand dollars I just gave you.  Do you know,
+Matt, that I never knew a man to save up a thousand dollars, by
+denying himself many things, that he didn't invest the thousand in a
+wild-cat mine or a dry oil well?  Ah, Matt, it's those first few
+dollars that come so hard and go so easy that break most men's hearts;
+but here you are with twenty thousand that came so easy I've just
+naturally got to see how hard they go!  You'll be worth more money to
+me, Matt, and you'll be a safer man to handle this business when I'm
+gone, if you go out and play the game for a while by yourself.  You
+have a secret itching to do it anyhow, Matt, and in surrendering to me
+just now you went down with your colors flying.  You just wanted to be
+kind to the old man, didn't you?  Well, I appreciate it, Matt, because
+I'm an old man, and I know how hard it is for a boy to yield to an old
+man's wishes; but youth must be served, and God forbid that I should
+rob you of the joy of the conflict, my boy.  When you're busted flat
+and need some more money, you may have it up to the amount to your
+credit on our books.  And when that's gone I guess you'll make a
+better port captain than you will this morning.  Does that program
+suit you better than the one I originally outlined?"
+
+Matt flushed and hung his head in embarrassment, but answered
+truthfully:  "Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well," said Cappy, relapsing into one of his frequent
+colloquialisms, "go to it, boy.  Eat it up."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+CAPPY FORBIDS THE BANS--YET
+
+
+Cappy Ricks sat at breakfast, tapping meditatively on the apex of a
+boiled egg, when his daughter swished into the room, saluted her
+interesting parent by depositing a light kiss on his bald and
+ingenuous head, and took her place at the table.
+
+Florence Ricks was a radiant vision in a filmy pink breakfast gown and
+cap, and as she smiled perkily at Cappy he returned her bright look
+with one a trifle sad and yearning.
+
+"Florence, my love," said Cappy gently, "have you, by any chance,
+talked with that big, two-fisted sailor of yours within the past
+twelve hours?"
+
+She shook her head negatively, tilting her nose and pursing her lips
+in an adorable grimace of disapproval.
+
+"Since Matt Peasley has been master of that tug I see him only when
+his owners cannot find something more important for him to do.  Why do
+you pop that question at me so suddenly?  Did you want to see him
+about something?"
+
+"No.  I saw him yesterday forenoon, and we went into a clinch and
+fought each other all over my private office.  Matt got the decision.
+I thought he might have called you up to discuss with you his plans
+for the future.  When he left me yesterday he was on his way back to
+the office of the Red Stack Tugboat Company to tell the port captain
+he could stick some other skipper on the tug Sea Fox."
+
+Florence clapped her hands ecstatically.  "Oh, goody, goody!" she
+cried.
+
+"Well, it might be worse."
+
+"Why is he resigning?  To go to work for you, as I wanted him to do
+six months ago?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, Florry," Cappy began.  "I know you're going to
+be disappointed, but the fact of the matter is we've just got to let
+that boy paddle his own canoe--though, to hear him talk, he's going to
+operate his own line of steamers!  Matt doesn't think in canoes when
+the subject of the merchant marine is up for discussion any more than
+I think in cent pieces when I'm wrestling with a banker for a loan.
+He has resigned from the tug Sea Fox to go into business for himself!"
+
+"But how can he?  He hasn't any money, you silly man!"
+
+"Oh, yes, he has.  I gave him twenty thousand dollars yesterday.  He
+had that much credit on the Blue Star books from his share of the
+recharter of the steamer Unicorn nearly two years ago."
+
+"But I thought you weren't going to give him any of that money,"
+Florence protested.
+
+"I thought so, too," Cappy answered dryly; "but the scoundrel put up a
+low-down job on me and pried the twenty thousand loose," and Cappy
+proceeded to relate to Florry the sad tale of the salvage of the
+Retriever.
+
+Florence was gifted with the same lovable sense of humor that
+distinguished her father; and, somewhat to his annoyance, she laughed
+long and heartily at this tale of how her fiance had vanquished him.
+
+"And then what?" she queried with childish insouciance.
+
+"Why, then he made friends with Skinner and, to my complete amazement,
+surrendered without firing a shot.  He said he'd be my port captain
+now; whereas six months ago he said it was against his religion to
+work for a relative, and that he wanted to go into business for
+himself.  And only the day before he'd reiterated those sentiments."
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!" said Florry, much relieved.
+
+"Wait!" said Cappy dramatically.  "Don't cheer yet.  I've upset your
+apple cart, my dear.  I rejected the young man's proposition and
+condemned him to a business of his own."
+
+"But you wanted him for your port captain, Daddy dear.  You wanted him
+the very worst way."
+
+"And that's just how I got him, Florry.  I don't want any man whose
+heart is not in his job, and a business man should never surrender for
+sentimental reasons.  You cannot mix sentiment and business, daughter;
+if you do you'll get chaos.  Matt Peasley surrendered to me--not
+because he wanted to, but to please you.  You've been picking on him
+rather hard lately, haven't you?"
+
+Florry admitted it.
+
+"I knew it," Cappy declared.  "I knew it--and that's why I exercised
+the veto on you, Florry."
+
+Florry's eyes dropped, and in the corners of them her father thought
+he detected a glint of tears; whereupon he attacked his egg
+vigorously.  After a brief silence he said:
+
+"Of course that means a slight delay in your plans for a June
+wedding--"
+
+A tear crept through Florry's long lashes and dropped unheeded into
+her grapefruit.  Cappy saw it drop, but resolved to be cruel and
+ignore it.
+
+"The infernal schemer couldn't resist the temptation to take a fall
+out of your old man, Florry; so naturally I had to take a fall out of
+him; though, at that, I have doubts whether I succeeded.  I think I
+played into his hand; and now I'm telling you about it to save him the
+trouble and grief of an explanation he couldn't make and which you
+wouldn't understand--from him.  Some day my affairs will all be yours,
+Florry--yours and Matt's; and he'll have to manage them for you.  To
+manage them well, he must have experience; hence, I decided, in about
+two flips of a humming-bird's tail, that it would be a mighty good
+thing for you and Matt if I forced him into business for himself and,
+as I informed him, let him pay for that experience with his own money;
+for that is the only kind of money that will buy him any experience
+worth while.  No young man ever learned a great deal when some
+sentimental old fool footed the bill for his tuition fees in the
+college of hard knocks."
+
+"Poor Matt!" Florry sobbed.  "He hasn't--had anything--except hard
+knocks since he was--fourteen years--old."
+
+"Yes," shrilled Cappy; "and just look at the difference between him
+and these la-di-da boys that never had any hard knocks!  Hard knocks!
+Why, hard knocks keep that devilish fellow in condition!"
+
+"But I'd planned--we didn't want to have too long an--engagement--"
+
+"I'll guarantee you, little daughter, you will not have to wait longer
+than six months.  Please wait--for my sake."  And Cappy rose, made his
+way round the breakfast table and placed his old arms about the light
+and joy of his existence.  "So, so, now!" he soothed.  "Don't you cry,
+honey, until you hear what the old man has to say.  Why, haven't I
+always given my little daughter everything she wanted?  You wanted
+that big sailor, Florry; I saw he wanted you; and he looked awful good
+to me.  I knew he was man, every inch of him; he was our kind of
+people and he knew ships and loved them, and so I wanted him for you.
+What if he was a big hunk of a sailor with hardly enough money saved
+up to buy you half a dozen party dresses?  None of the Ricks tribe was
+ever born or bred in the purple--and I have money enough for all
+practical purposes.  So I went after him for you, Florry, and you're
+going to get him; so don't cry about it."
+
+"Life is so filled with disappointments," Florry sobbed,
+notwithstanding this was the first she had ever known.
+
+Cappy smiled a still small smile as he bent over her.
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" he replied.  "Only the day before yesterday Matt told
+me he didn't want to work for me; that he didn't want a relative
+handing him any favors; and that he wasn't marrying you to ease
+himself into a soft job for life.  He said he wanted to make the fight
+himself.  And do you know, Florry, if he had been my own boy I
+couldn't have been prouder of him than when he told me that!  When old
+What-you-may-call-him in Shakespeare's play said:  'Let me have men
+about me that are fat,' it showed how blamed little Shakespeare knew
+about men.  He should have said:  'Let me have men about me who are
+long and tough, and fairly thick in the middle; let me have scrappy
+boys about me with backbone!'
+
+"Well, in a way, Florry, I was disappointed, and perhaps, in the heat
+of the moment, I showed it, as I have a habit of doing; but after Matt
+had left the office, and I got to thinking it over, away down low I
+was proud of him.  Consequently when he reversed his decision
+yesterday I knew why, for I lived twenty-five years with your mother.
+But a woman's love is selfish sometimes, and I knew that Matt had
+surrendered, not to me, but to you; though he came across like a
+sport, he didn't want to, for you'd roweled him and roped him with
+your love, my dear--and, though you do not know it, that's a terrible
+thing to do to a free-running colt like Matt Peasley.  He has his
+code, and it's a bully code; and I don't want you to tie knots in it,
+Florry.  Won't you be as spunky and independent as he is, and give him
+his head for six months more?  He'll probably call sometime to-day, or
+ring up, to tell you how I picked holes in the program; and when he
+does I want you to smile and tell him you're glad of it, and suggest a
+postponement of the wedding until he has demonstrated to me that he is
+a business man."
+
+Florence looked up and bravely smiled a forgiving smile through her
+tears.
+
+"You're a dreadful Buttinsky, Daddy Ricks!" she protested.
+
+He kissed her hungrily.
+
+"Oh, I'm a devil in my own home town!" he replied, and trotted back to
+his neglected breakfast.  "If Matt hasn't made good as a business man
+within six months, or has lost his bank roll--and I intend to see to
+it that he does lose it, if I ever get a hack at him--we'll pull off
+this wedding anyhow.  I guess there's room enough in this house for
+three."
+
+At nine o'clock Cappy Ricks, with a lilt in his heart, drove down to
+his office behind his team of high-stepping bays.  At the corner of
+California and Drumm Streets he saw Matt Peasley and hailed him.  The
+latter came to the carriage door and looked in.
+
+"It's all right, Matt," Cappy said with a cunning wink.  "I've fixed
+Florry's clock for her.  There won't be the slightest trouble."
+
+Matt Peasley wrung his hand gratefully.
+
+"I quit the Sea Fox last night," he announced gladly.
+
+"Going into business this morning, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What line?"
+
+"Ship, freight and marine insurance broker."
+
+"Well, that's a line that will keep you hustling for your wheatcakes
+until you get well acquainted.  However, just to give you a shove in
+the right direction, you might scout round the market and see whether
+you can dig up a cargo for our steamer Tillicum.  Usual commission of
+two and a half per cent."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Ricks.  I ought to be able to scare up something in
+the way of a foreign lumber cargo for her."
+
+"We've tried and failed.  Moreover, her fuel-oil tankage isn't
+sufficient to take her too far foreign and back; added to which she is
+under American registry, employing American seamen, and I'd rather lay
+her up than put a coolie crew aboard and compete with the British
+tramps, with their Lascar and Chinamen, at six and seven dollars a
+month.  We've been running her in our own trade; but the lumber market
+is very dull and she has but one more cargo in sight; after that is
+freighted, unless we can find outside business for her, she'll have to
+lay up in Oakland Inner Harbor until the Panama Canal opens--when, of
+course, we can load her for the Atlantic seaboard.  She carries nearly
+two million feet, and that's what makes it so hard for us to keep her
+busy coastwise."
+
+"How about some Mexican or Central American business--general cargo?"
+Matt suggested.
+
+"Pretty hard stuff to get.  The Pacific Mail has most of the Central
+American business; and, owing to the political situation in Mexico,
+that trade is practically killed.  Every vessel that gets in there has
+trouble with one faction or the other; they're liable to confiscate,
+and then we'd have to call on the navy to get our ship back for us."
+
+"I'll look round for a grain charter to Honolulu and return with sugar
+or general cargo."
+
+"We might do that," Cappy suggested, brightening.  "Good luck to you,
+Matt--and don't be a stranger."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+MATT PEASLEY BECOMES A SHIPOWNER
+
+
+A youth thrust a wary nose into Cappy Ricks' private office and
+announced Captain Matt Peasley was desirous of admittance.
+
+"Show him in," Cappy ordered, and Matt entered.
+
+"Well, young man," said Cappy briskly, "sit down and tell me of your
+adventures during your first week as a business man.  Of course, I
+hear from Florry that you have opened a dink of an office
+somewhere--got desk space with the Alaskan Codfish Corporation,
+haven't you, with the use of their telephone, stenographer and general
+office boy?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  The manager, Slade, is a native of Thomaston--never knew
+anything but fish all his life; and, inasmuch as I was raised on the
+Grand Banks, I got in the habit of drifting round there occasionally,
+and Slade offered me the privilege of making it my headquarters.  Ten
+dollars a month--cheap enough."
+
+"Yes, considering the aroma of codfish that goes with it,
+free-gratis," Cappy admitted dryly; "but then I suppose that's what
+attracted you in the first place.  But have you done any real
+business, Matt?"
+
+"Well, I've arranged with several good old-line insurance companies to
+accept any marine-insurance business I may bring in, though I haven't
+sold any yet; neither have I been able to find a load for your
+Tillicum.  By the way, you have a little old three-legged schooner
+laid up in Oakland Inner Harbor."
+
+"I have three of them--more's the pity!" Cappy replied--"the Ethel
+Ricks, the Nukahiva and the Harpoon.  Which one do you mean?"
+
+"The Ethel Ricks.  She's the only one I examined closely.  Would you
+consider selling her?"
+
+"Ah," said Cappy, "I perceive.  Your friend Slade wants her for a
+codfisher, eh?"
+
+"That's all she's good for now, Mr. Ricks.  She has had her day in the
+lumber trade; the steam schooners have relegated her to a final
+resting place in the ooze of Oakland Inner Harbor; her class of
+windjammers is a thing of the past for general cargo.  She's been laid
+up now for three years.  True, her bottom is coppered and you dry-dock
+her every year; but that's an expense.  And then you must consider
+taxes and depreciation, and sooner or later, if she lies in the mud
+long enough, the Teredo will eat her up; so it occurred to me that you
+might be glad to sell.  She was built in 1883, but she was built to
+last--"
+
+"Never built a cheap ship in my life and never ran 'em cheap," Cappy
+challenged proudly.  "The Ethel Ricks is in the discard, but she's as
+sound a little packet as you'll find anywhere.  She's had the best of
+care.  The same is true of the Harpoon and the Nukahiva."
+
+"What do you want for her?"
+
+"Four thousand dollars," Cappy answered promptly.
+
+"I was offered the Dandelion for three thousand; she's ten years
+younger than the Ethel Ricks and in very good condition.  Sorry, but I
+guess you'll have to keep the Ethel--and let me tell you, the longer
+you keep her the less she's worth.  However, I guess she doesn't owe
+you anything."
+
+"No; she paid for herself more'n twice," Cappy replied.
+
+"Then if you get three thousand for her it's like finding the money
+and losing a worry."
+
+"Sold!" said Cappy.
+
+"I didn't say I'd buy," Matt warned him.  "What do you want for the
+Harpoon and the Nukahiva?"
+
+"They're all sister ships.  Three thousand each."
+
+"I am empowered to make you an offer of twenty-seven hundred and fifty
+dollars each for the three!" Matt shot at him.
+
+"Net?  The three of them?"  Cappy was all attention now; for selling
+schooners in lots of three was decidedly new and interesting.
+
+"Hardly!  Five per cent to me.  Remember I'm a ship, freight and
+marine insurance broker, and I'm not working for my health.  Why, I
+haven't even suggested any other vessels to my clients--and, by the
+way, they are not codfish people either.  I knew you'd want to get rid
+of these little hookers, so I'm giving you first crack at the
+bargain."
+
+"Who wants them?" Cappy demanded craftily.
+
+"If I told you that you'd do me the way you did that Seattle broker
+who tried to put through the charter of the Lion and the Unicorn.
+When you knew who his clients were you were in position to defy
+him--and you did!"
+
+"No offense," Cappy retorted innocently.  "Don't be so touchy!  Is
+this a cash proposition, Matt?"
+
+"In the hand."
+
+"I accept."
+
+"Then give me a written option," Matt warned him.  "No more
+word-of-mouth business for me with you."
+
+Cappy laughed; and, calling in a stenographer, he dictated the option.
+
+"Now, then, Matt," he said as he signed the option five minutes later
+and handed it to Matt, "who shall we make out the bills of sale to?"
+
+"To the Pacific Shipping Company.  When you're ready telephone me and
+I'll bring the check round."
+
+"Go get your check now," Cappy ordered.  "Skinner will have the bills
+of sale ready by the time you return.  And I do wish to heaven," he
+added, "that you had called round with this proposition four days ago.
+I've just had those three schooners dry-docked, cleaned and painted."
+
+"Which is the very reason why I didn't call round until to-day, Mr.
+Ricks.  You can afford that dry-dock bill so much better than--er--the
+Pacific Shipping Company."
+
+He left, laughing, and proceeded to the office of the Pacific Shipping
+Company, where he procured a check for eighty-two hundred and fifty
+dollars and returned to the Blue Star Navigation Company's office.
+Mr. Skinner had in the meantime prepared proper bills of sale; a
+notary, with offices in the building, had been called in to attest the
+signatures of Cappy Ricks and Mr. Hankins, president and secretary
+respectively of the Blue Star Navigation Company; and when Cappy Ricks
+handed over the bills of sale to Matt Peasley, together with the Blue
+Star check for four hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents--Matt's
+commission--the latter handed him the certified check of the Pacific
+Shipping Company.
+
+"Who is the Pacific Shipping Company, Matt?" Cappy queried.  "I never
+heard of them before."
+
+"It's a new company, sir," Matt replied; and, gathering up his bills
+of sale and the check for his commission, he fled precipitately,
+leaving Cappy Ricks to adjust his spectacles and examine the check.
+It was signed:  "Pacific Shipping Company, by Matthew Peasley,
+President."
+
+For a long time Cappy Ricks sat staring at that check.  Finally he
+looked up and saw Mr. Skinner gazing at him.  He held out the check
+and tapped Matt Peasley's signature.
+
+"Get on to that, Skinner, my boy," he said; "get on to that!  Matt's
+gone into the shipping business, and he's making an humble start with
+three little old antiquated schooners, for which he has paid me more
+than eight thousand dollars.  Now he will go broke!"
+
+"I do not agree with you, Mr. Ricks," Mr. Skinner replied dryly, "for
+I notice he didn't forget to stick us four hundred and twelve dollars
+and fifty cents for the privilege of selling him those three
+schooners!  This is the first time I ever heard of anybody's paying
+the purchaser a commission!"
+
+"The infernal scoundrel!" Cappy shrilled angrily, for Mr. Skinner's
+assertion carried the hint that Cappy had been outgeneraled.  "The
+Yankee thief!--acting as broker for a company in which he owns all the
+capital stock!  In business a week and he's made over four hundred
+dollars already, neat and nice, and as clean as a hound's tooth!  Can
+you beat it?"
+
+"It's better than being a port captain for the Blue Star Navigation
+Company at three hundred a month," Mr. Skinner suggested wistfully.
+
+He had worked for a salary all his days, and after passing the thirty
+mark he had lost the courage to leap into the commercial fray and be
+his own man.  He wished he might have been endowed at birth with a
+modicum of Matt Peasley's courage and reckless disregard of
+consequences.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+WORKING CAPITAL
+
+
+It was nearly ten weeks before Cappy Ricks laid eyes on Matt Peasley
+again.  Inquiry from Florry elicited the information that Matt had
+gone to Mexico as skipper of his own schooner, the Harpoon, bound on
+some mysterious business.
+
+"He's taken the old Harpoon down there to stick a Mexican--I'll bet a
+hat on that!" Cappy reflected.  "I'll bet he'll have a tale to tell
+when he gets back."
+
+There came a day when Matt, looking healthy and happy, dropped in for
+a social call.
+
+"Well, young man," Cappy greeted him, "give an account of yourself.
+How do you find business?"
+
+"The finest game in the world," Matt replied heartily.  "I had the
+Ethel Ricks snaked out of the mud and hauled out on the marine
+railway, where I bossed a gang of riggers and sailmakers for a week,
+getting her gear in shape while she was having a gas engine and tanks
+for the distillate installed.  Then I gave her a dab of paint here and
+there, sweetened her up, and sold her to Slade, of the Alaska
+Codfishing Corporation, at a net profit of fifteen hundred dollars
+over her total cost to me.  Nearly two thousand for my first month in
+business.  Not so bad, eh?"
+
+"You'll do better after a while," Cappy remarked dryly. "I hear you've
+been to Mexico. How about it, boy?"
+
+"I took the Harpoon down myself, and hired a skipper to take the
+Nukahiva.  Before doing so, however, I overhauled their gear and
+installed gas engines in them also--only I'd learned something by this
+time.  I bought second-hand engines, rebuilt, but with a guaranty, and
+they cost me a thousand dollars less than new engines.  In
+conversation with Captain Kirk, of the steamer San Blas, I had heard
+that a company in Guaymas was thinking of buying a couple of little
+coasting schooners, putting gas engines in them, and adding these
+crafts to their fleet running out of Guaymas to Mazatlan, Topolobampo,
+and way ports.  So I went down, put my schooners under the Mexican
+flag, and started opposition.  The old-established company went to the
+local military commander and tried to get him to commandeer my vessels
+for the use of the government, which pays in depreciated shinplasters
+that may be worth something some day a hundred years from now."
+
+"Whew-w-w!" Cappy whistled.  "That was a narrow squeak, Matt.  How did
+you dodge it?"
+
+"I had the local military commander on my payroll, with good American
+gold, before I ever started anything.  I knew he'd come to shake me
+down; so I anticipated him and made a monthly donation to the cause of
+liberty.  I do not know for certain, but I imagine he went south with
+it himself, though I do not begrudge the amount.  I only paid him for
+one month anyhow.  By that time I had an offer to sell out; and I did,
+reluctantly, but for real money and at a much better figure than if I
+had not made it an object for them to buy.  I got out with a net
+profit of seventy-four hundred and fifty dollars on the two schooners.
+Not so bad, eh, Mr. Ricks?  Over nine thousand dollars in less than
+three months?  Of course, I realize I could not have made that much if
+I hadn't had the funds with which to speculate."
+
+Cappy nodded.  Words were beyond him for the time being.  Finally he
+said:
+
+"Matt, that was pure gambling, though you think it was a speculation.
+It was mighty poor business, even if you did emerge with a fancy
+profit.  You might have been cleaned out."
+
+"Yes; and if the hare hadn't stopped to take a nap the tortoise would
+not have won the race," Matt replied.  "So far as I can see, all
+business is a gamble and every investment is a bet; hence, a good
+business man is a good gambler."
+
+Cappy Ricks sighed.
+
+"There is a special providence," he said, "that looks after fools,
+drunken men and sailors."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+EASY MONEY
+
+
+Captain Matt Peasley's first act after consummating his first
+successful deal was to purchase for the Pacific Shipping Company a
+membership in the Merchants' Exchange, on the floor of which he knew
+he would meet daily all the shipping men of San Francisco, and thus be
+enabled to keep in touch with trade conditions.
+
+He had been a member less than a week when the wisdom of spending five
+hundred dollars for his membership was made delightfully apparent.
+While he stood watching the secretary chalk on the blackboard the
+record of the latest arrivals and departures, he heard a man behind
+him speaking:
+
+"Heyfuss, I'm in the market to charter another freighter for the
+Panama run.  You might look round and see whether you can line
+something up for us.  I'd like about a two-thousand-ton boat; and we
+could charter her for a year."
+
+"There's only one vessel available," the man addressed as Heyfuss
+answered; "and that's the Tillicum.  Cappy Ricks had her laid up in
+Oakland Creek--"
+
+Matt moved away and approached a clerk at the desk.
+
+"That dark-haired man with the thick glasses, talking with Mr.
+Heyfuss," he said--"who is he?"
+
+"That is Mr. Henry Kelton, manager of G. H. Morrow Company," the clerk
+answered.  "They operate a line of sailing vessels foreign and half a
+dozen steamers to South American ports."
+
+Matt thanked him, entered a telephone booth and on consulting the
+telephone directory, discovered that J. 0. Heyfuss was a broker.
+
+"I'll have to step lively to beat Heyfuss to it," he soliloquized, and
+forthwith hastened down to the office of the Blue Star Navigation
+Company.
+
+"Well, young man!" Cappy greeted him genially.  "How about you?"
+
+"Never mind me.  How about the Tillicum?"
+
+"Laid up in Oakland Inner Harbor waiting for better times."
+
+"I think I can give her some business.  Would you charter her to the
+Pacific Shipping Company?"
+
+"Well," Cappy replied, "I might be induced to take a chance in these
+hard times.  How much money have you in bank to-day?"
+
+"In a pinch I could lay my hands on thirty thousand, cash."
+
+"Well," said Cappy thoughtfully, "that little roll, plus an
+established credit and a reputation for business experience, might
+carry you far with some people--but not with me.  You're not a safe
+bet--yet; but we can make it safe."
+
+"How?"
+
+"You can pay the charter money in advance," Cappy answered smilingly.
+
+"I have decided not to do any more gambling, Mr. Ricks.  Hereafter, as
+near as such a thing may be humanly possible, I'm going to play a sure
+thing.  Therefore, all things being equal, if I can guarantee you your
+price for the steamer, on a year's charter, you do not care what I do
+with the vessel, provided that I do not injure her?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, then, in order to play safe and protect you, suppose I charter
+her from you, contingent on my ability to recharter her to some
+responsible shipping firm.  Under those conditions would you exact the
+charter money in advance?  You know very well that when I collect my
+money from the charterers you'll get yours right away."
+
+"Without question, Matt; but sometimes a fellow cannot collect his
+money from the charterers, and then the owner has to wait.  I'm taking
+no chances to speak of on you, Matthew, my son; but for the sake of
+making it a sporting proposition I'll talk business on the basis of
+fifty per cent. of the charter money, payable monthly in advance."
+
+"That's cold-blooded, but I can stand it.  What is the Tillicum going
+to cost me a day?"
+
+"What kind of charter do you want--government form or bare boat?"
+
+"You might give me an option with a price based on each form.  I
+haven't the slightest idea what form my prospective victim prefers,
+though I prefer a bare-boat charter.  I will close with you on
+whatever basis he prefers, if that is satisfactory."
+
+"I'll make many concessions to get that vessel out of the mud and to
+sea, and paying a reasonable rate on the money invested in her.  I
+hate to keep a good skipper and a good chief engineer on the beach,
+and I want them to begin drawing their salaries again."
+
+Cappy reached into his desk and produced a little loose-leaf
+memorandum book, and from certain figures therein contained he
+commenced to figure what he should charge Matt for the ship.  On his
+part, Matt, whose apprenticeship under the Blue Star had made him
+tolerably familiar with every steamer in the fleet, got out a pad and
+pencil and commenced to figure the cost of operation himself.  Not
+knowing the cost of the steamer or the ratio of profit Cappy might
+expect on the investment, however, he was more or less at sea until
+Cappy had named his figures; whereupon Matt pretended to do some more
+figuring.  Finally he frowned and said:
+
+"Fifty dollars a day too much."
+
+He did not know a thing about it, but he knew Cappy Ricks well enough
+to know that Cappy would first decide on his minimum price and then
+add a hundred dollars a day for good measure; hence, Yankeelike, Matt
+commenced to chaffer, with the result that before he left the office
+Cappy had abated his price fifty dollars a day and given Matt a
+forty-eight-hour option on the vessel, agreeing to charter her to him
+at the figures specified, contingent on Matt's ability to recharter
+her to a responsible firm.
+
+Cappy chuckled as Matt Peasley left the office.
+
+"You're taking a pretty big bite, Matt," he soliloquized; "so I'll
+handicap you.  And if anything goes wrong, and you fail to collect
+from your people, I'll give you a lesson in high finance that you'll
+never forget, young man!  I'll bet my immortal soul you're going to
+try to do business with Morrow & Company; and if that outfit isn't
+scheduled for involuntary bankruptcy, then I'm a Chinaman.  A charter
+for a year, eh?  They'll never last a year.  They'll bust, owing you a
+month's charter money, Matthew, and the vessel will be at sea, most
+likely, or in a South American port, when that happens; and you can't
+throw her back on me until you deliver her in her home port.  And
+meantime your charter to me keeps rambling right along, and I'll
+attach your bankroll if you're a day late with your payment in
+advance.  Yes, sir; I'll break you in two for the good of your
+immortal soul.  Matt--Matt, my son--something tells me you're
+monkeying with fire and liable to get burned."
+
+From Cappy Ricks' office Matt Peasley called on Kelton of Morrow &
+Company.  Kelton, a shrewd, double-action sort of person and the
+smartest shipping man on the street, looked with frank curiosity at
+Matt's modest card.
+
+"Pacific Shipping Company, eh?  That's a new one on me, Captain
+Peasley," he said.
+
+"It's a new one on me also," Matt replied humorously; "in fact, it is
+too recent to be very well known.  We've been operating a fleet of
+windjammers, with auxiliary power, down on the Mexican Coast," he
+added truthfully, calm in the knowledge that two schooners constitute
+a fleet if one be not inclined to split conversational hairs; "but we
+sold them and decided to go into the steamship business.  We hope to
+buy or build a line of freighters to run to Atlantic Coast ports via
+the Panama Canal."
+
+"What steam vessels have you got now?" Kelton queried interestedly.
+
+"Only one at present, Mr. Kelton.  We've acquired the Tillicum, late
+of the Blue Star fleet."
+
+"Indeed!" replied Kelton.
+
+He was all attention now; for, though Matt Peasley did not know it,
+less than ten days previous Kelton had tried to charter the Tillicum
+direct from Cappy Ricks, who, knowing something of the financial
+condition of Morrow & Company, had declined to consider a charter
+unless under a guaranty of payment other than that of Morrow &
+Company.  Kelton was in urgent need of a steamer to cope with the
+congestion of freight, and the Tillicum suited the purpose of his
+company admirably; hence, the news that he might still be able to
+acquire her filled him with sudden hope.
+
+"Indeed!" he reiterated.  "I had no idea Cappy Ricks contemplated
+selling her, though it has been common talk on the street that he made
+a mistake in building such a big boat as the Tillicum for the
+coastwise lumber trade.  She was too hard to find business for, and I
+dare say he was sick of his bargain."
+
+"Well, I thought we'd take a chance on her," Matt replied, not taking
+the trouble to disabuse Kelton of the impression to which he had
+apparently jumped--to wit, that the Pacific Shipping Company had
+purchased the Tillicum.
+
+"What do you intend doing with her?" Kelton continued.
+
+"They tell me business is good on the Panama run, and it will be
+better when the Canal is opened.  However, until the Canal does open,
+we would prefer to keep out of the Pacific Coast trade.  Competition
+always means a rate war, with consequent loss to both parties to the
+struggle; so we'd rather charter the Tillicum for a year if we could.
+I heard you were in the market for a boat."
+
+"I think we might use the Tillicum," Kelton replied.  "What are you
+asking for her?"
+
+Matt named a figure considerably in advance of what he expected to
+receive and stipulated a bare-boat charter--that is to say, Kelton's
+company should pay the entire cost of operating the vessel, and select
+her crew and officers with the exception of the captain and chief
+engineer, it being customary among many owners, when chartering a
+vessel, to stipulate that their own captain, in whom they have
+confidence, shall command her.  Cappy Ricks always specified his own
+skipper and chief engineer.
+
+When Matt named his figure Kelton promptly shouted "Thief!" but made
+the mistake of shouting too loud--whereat Matt Peasley knew he was not
+sincere and promptly decided to outgame him.  At the end of half an
+hour of argument and much futile figuring, which deceived nobody, Matt
+abated his price twenty-five dollars a day and Kelton said he would
+think it over.  Matt knew the charter was as good as closed, and when
+he left Morrow & Company's office he repaired straight to that of
+Cappy Ricks.
+
+"I think I'll be able to recharter, Mr. Ricks," he said confidently.
+"Have you any objection to Morrow & Company as recharterers?"
+
+Cappy started slightly, hesitated a fraction of a second, and replied
+that he had no objection whatsoever.
+
+"Very well, sir," Matt replied.  "Will you please have Mr. Skinner
+prepare the charter parties right away, sign them, and send them over
+to my office for my signature?  I can't wait to sign them now.  And
+about the captain--I suppose you'll want to put in your own skipper,
+of course.  Who is he?"
+
+"Captain Grant."
+
+"Have you any objection to inserting a clause in the charter party
+stipulating that, if for any reason Captain Grant proves objectionable
+to the charterers, I may take command of the vessel myself?  As
+charterer I will have a very vital interest in the vessel and I might
+feel called on to protect that interest personally."
+
+"Matt," said Cappy earnestly, "I'll trust you in preference to most
+men with any ship of mine.  Still, Grant is a very able man."
+
+"He might be too slow for me, Mr. Ricks.  I prefer to have a spare
+anchor in case of necessity."
+
+"Well, have it your own way," Cappy acquiesced, and summoned Mr.
+Skinner to prepare the charter parties, while Matt went back to his
+own office and gave instructions that he was not to be called to the
+telephone.
+
+Something told him that Kelton would be ringing up before the day was
+over to accept his price on the Tillicum, and he did not want to be
+placed in the position of having to give a yes or no answer until he
+had seen Cappy Ricks' charter parties, with Cappy's signature
+attached.  He would then close up his deal with Morrow & Company,
+after which he would sign Cappy's charter parties and turn two copies
+over to Cappy.  In this way he would be enabled to play safe and save
+his face in case any hitch occurred at the last minute.
+
+The charter parties, duly signed and in triplicate, arrived from Cappy
+Ricks in the morning's mail, with a request from Cappy for Matt to
+append his signature to two copies and return them to the Blue Star
+Navigation Company.  Matt, after first assuring himself that the
+instrument was in order, called up Kelton, who informed him that he
+would accept Matt's offer for a year's charter of the Tillicum.
+Within half an hour Matt had his charter parties ready for Kelton's
+signature and the deal was closed; whereupon Matt signed the charter
+party Cappy Ricks had sent him and handed it to Cappy, together with a
+check for nine thousand dollars--one half the monthly rental of the
+Tillicum.
+
+Cappy whistled softly through his teeth as he handed the documents to
+Mr. Skinner and instructed him to put the Tillicum in commission at
+once.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+THE CATACLYSM
+
+
+For two voyages all went well.  The Tillicum was engaged in carrying
+general cargo to Panama for reshipment over the Panama Railroad to
+Colon, at which point it was reshipped in steamers to ports along the
+Atlantic seaboard.  Following the universal custom, Matt's charter
+with Morrow & Company stipulated settlement in full every thirty days,
+whereas his charter with Cappy Ricks, for reasons best known to Cappy,
+stipulated payment in full every fifteen days; which arrangement
+operated to keep nine thousand dollars of Matt's money in Cappy's
+hands continuously.  This fact graveled Matt whenever he reflected
+that money was worth at least seven per cent.; but, since he was
+making sixty dollars a day profit as the result of his deal, he
+concluded not to mention this point to Cappy Ricks.
+
+Morrow & Company met the first monthly payment with cash on the nail.
+At the second settlement, however, when Matt called for his check,
+Kelton requested, as a special favor, that Matt allow him four days'
+time.  A clever talker, with a peculiarly winning way about him, he
+disarmed suspicion very readily, and Matt assured him he would be very
+glad indeed to extend him such a slight courtesy.
+
+Meantime, however, Cappy Ricks had to be reckoned with; so, in order
+not to keep him waiting, Matt sent him another check for nine thousand
+dollars.  Cappy now had eighteen thousand dollars of Matt's money; and
+on the fourth day, when the latter called on Kelton for his check, the
+latter actually made him feel ashamed of himself for calling and sent
+him away with one-half of the sum now overdue!  This perturbed Matt
+somewhat, but when he showed some slight indication of it Kelton
+playfully picked up a glass paper weight and threatened to destroy him
+if he did not get out of the office at once; so, because it is
+difficult to be serious with a man who declines to take one seriously,
+Matt forced a grin and departed, with the light intimation that he
+would return in three days, and if the check was not forthcoming then
+he would fresco Kelton's office with the latter's life-blood.
+
+"Get out!" shouted Kelton laughingly.  "I know money is tight and I
+don't blame you for being Fido-at-the-rat-hole; but if you bother me
+about that check for a week I'll not speak to you."
+
+So Matt waited a week, and then the check reached him by mail, with a
+courteous note from Kelton thanking him for his leniency.  It seemed
+to Matt he had scarcely acknowledged the receipt of that check before
+he had to give Cappy Ricks another nine thousand dollars!
+
+Morrow & Company were late again on the third month, but this time
+they did not wait to be dunned.  On the day before the payment was due
+Kelton took Matt Peasley to luncheon and in the course of the meal he
+informed Matt, quite casually, that he would be a little late with his
+check.  With two dollars' worth of his genial host's food under his
+belt, Matt felt that it would be rude, to say the least, if he
+insisted on settlement; so he said:
+
+"Oh, don't worry about that, old man!  Give it to me as soon as you
+can, because I'm a little pinched myself."
+
+Nevertheless, Matt was beginning to worry, for his acquaintance
+throughout the trade had extended rapidly, due to his propensity for
+making friends, and he had heard one or two little rumors that Morrow
+& Company had bitten off more than they could chew in a few big deals
+of late and had been badly pinched; in fact, to such an extent did
+Matt ponder on the possibility of the company's going into the hands
+of the receiver, leaving his thirty thousand dollars to disappear into
+the ravening maw of the Blue Star Navigation Company, that he forgot
+to send Cappy his check for nine thousand dollars the day it was due.
+And the next morning Cappy himself called up and, in a voice that
+seemed to come straight from a cold-storage plant, asked him what he
+meant by it, and requested him--though to Matt it sounded like a
+peremptory demand--to send the check over at once.  So angry and
+humiliated did Matt feel as a result of this dun, he could not trust
+himself to call with the check but sent it by special delivery.
+
+The Tillicum had returned from her second voyage to Panama and was
+about to commence loading her third cargo when another payment fell
+due.  To Matt's chagrin Kelton again pleaded for delay; and again Matt
+settled with Cappy Ricks prior to collecting from Morrow & Company.
+Kelton had promised a check on the following Wednesday, and on the
+appointed day Matt called, only to be met with a request for further
+delay.  Kelton explained that Mr. Morrow had been taken very ill and
+things were at sixes and sevens in the office as a result.  Could not
+Matt wait until Saturday, when Mr. Morrow would be back to sign a
+check?
+
+"What's wrong with Morrow?" Matt demanded pointedly.  "Has he got
+paralysis of the right hand?"
+
+"Worse than that," Kelton answered seriously.  "He's on the verge of
+nervous prostration."
+
+"But can't you sign a check?"
+
+"Y-e-s; but Mr. Morrow generally attends to all financial details."
+
+"Well, we'll excuse him from attending to this detail," Matt replied.
+"I want a check and I want it now, because it is a week overdue; the
+vessel is nearly loaded and about to go to sea, and if I do not get my
+money--"
+
+"Well, suppose I give you half of it now and the other half in a day
+or two?" Kelton suggested.
+
+He looked worried and unhappy, and Matt felt sorry for him; for,
+indeed, Kelton was a likable chap and perfectly trustworthy, and Matt
+sensed some of the worry that was falling on the manager in his
+desperate efforts to run a business on short capital.  However, Matt's
+own financial shoestring was too short for him to afford any
+sentiment, though, for the reason that he was naturally kind-hearted
+and considerate, he consented to accept a check for half the amount
+due and left Kelton to the society of the many devils which seemed to
+be tormenting him.
+
+On the sidewalk he paused suddenly.  So Morrow was on the verge of
+nervous prostration, eh?  That was bad.  It had been Matt's experience
+that, as a usual thing, but two things conduce to bring about nervous
+prostration--overwork and worry; and in Morrow's case it must be
+worry, for Kelton did all the work!  Kelton, too, looked haggard and
+drawn.
+
+"I must be very careful," Matt told himself, "for if that concern
+should go broke while the Tillicum is en route to Panama my charter to
+Morrow & Company may be considered to have terminated automatically;
+and if they go under owing me from ten to twenty thousand dollars, I'm
+still responsible to Cappy Ricks for my charter of the Tillicum until
+I can bring her back to her home port and turn her back to him.  Thank
+God for that clause in the charter which gives me the privilege of
+terminating my charter with Cappy in case Morrow & Company terminate
+their charter with me!  It will be all right if they terminate it
+while the vessel is in San Francisco; but if she's very far from home
+I'll most certainly be eaten alive while I'm getting her back to
+Cappy!"
+
+He returned to his office and went into a long executive session with
+himself, from which he aroused presently and went down to the dock
+where the cargo was pouring into the hold of the Tillicum.  Here he
+consulted with the captain and the purser, and obtained a list of all
+persons, firms or corporations which had furnished supplies of any
+kind to the deck department of the steamer.  From the chief engineer
+he procured a similar list of those who had furnished supplies to the
+engine department; and, armed with this information, he returned to
+his office and dictated the following form letter:
+
+  Gentlemen:--Please take notice that we as charterers of the
+  steamer Tillicum from the Blue Star Navigation Company, and as
+  recharterers to Messrs. G. H. Morrow & Company, will not be
+  responsible for the payment to you of any bills for supplies or
+  stores, of any nature whatsoever, furnished to the said steamer
+  Tillicum since she has been under charter to said G. H. Morrow
+  & Company.  Any bills contracted with you by G. H. Morrow &
+  Company for account of the Tillicum must be paid to you by
+  G. H. Morrow & Company.  This notice is hereby given you in order
+  that we may go on record as disclaiming any responsibility as
+  charterers prior to the departure of the said steamer Tillicum
+  on her next voyage.
+
+                                     Yours very truly,
+                                 PACIFIC SHIPPING COMPANY,
+                              By Matthew Peasley, President.
+
+A copy of this letter Matt sent by registered mail, with a request for
+a return registry receipt, to each of the creditors of the Tillicum of
+whom he could get track.  He had all the receipts in hand by the last
+mail delivery the next day, and at eight o'clock that night the
+Tillicum, having cleared the customs the same afternoon, departed for
+Panama.  Two days later Matt again called on Morrow & Company for the
+money due him and, after much argument, succeeded in getting it.  He
+hastened at once to the bank on which it was drawn and asked the
+paying teller to certify it.  This the latter declined to do--neither
+would he cash the check; so Matt took it back to Kelton.
+
+"Kelton," he said, "the bank will not honor your check."
+
+Kelton looked desperate.
+
+"Confound you!" he growled.  "I stalled you until five minutes before
+the bank closed, thinking you would deposit it in your own bank
+to-morrow morning and I'd have a deposit to cover it by that time.  It
+will be all right first thing in the morning, Peasley."
+
+"It had better be!" Matt told him bluntly.  "Your charter provides for
+cancellation in the event that payments are not made as stipulated,
+and I'm not in a position to carry you or to take any chances on
+you--and I'm not going to."
+
+"I can't blame you a bit," Kelton answered regretfully.  "I tell you,
+with the money market as tight as it is, we're beating the devil round
+the stump these days.  Confound it, Peasley, a man has to do some
+scheming and stalling when everybody is crowding him for money,
+doesn't he?"
+
+The check was not paid when Matt presented it the next morning.  As he
+came out of the bank a newsboy, crying his daily sensation, accosted
+him with the first afternoon edition, and Matt's glance caught a smear
+of red ink seven columns wide across the front page:
+
+               SHIPPING MAN A SUICIDE!
+
+It was Morrow!
+
+For about a minute Matt Peasley stood on the corner, doing some of the
+fastest thinking he had ever done.  Morrow had taken a short cut out
+of his financial worries, and Matt realized that the tragedy would
+undoubtedly bring an avalanche of creditors down on the unhappy Kelton
+and ruin the firm.  At any rate, the concern would doubtless go into
+the hands of a receiver, and Matt Peasley might or might not hope for
+his in the sweet by and by, according to the amount of salvage
+reported.  The Tillicum was seventy-six hours at sea!
+
+"Matthew," Matt Peasley murmured to himself, "'theirs not to reason
+why, theirs but to do and die'--and all in one thundering big hurry!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+WHEN PAIN AND ANGUISH WRING THE BROW
+
+
+Cappy Ricks was having his siesta, with his feet on top of his desk,
+when Matt Peasley came bounding in, seized him by the shoulder and
+shook him wideawake.
+
+"Well, young man," Cappy snapped querulously, "what's all the
+excitement about?"
+
+"Morrow has committed suicide, and I know the firm is in financial
+difficulties.  I'll not be able to collect now--I'll have to wait with
+the rest of the creditors; and meantime the Tillicum, fully loaded, is
+somewhere down off the Mexican coast.  Good gracious, Mr. Ricks,
+there's the very devil to pay!"
+
+"We will, if you please, not include outsiders in this argument for
+the present, Matt," Cappy retorted dryly.  "The unfortunate devil does
+not pay!  You do, Matt.  I should worry!"
+
+"But you can help me save something from the wreck!" Matt pleaded
+desperately.  "It's going to clean me of my last dollar to make good
+with you on my charter, even if Morrow & Company do not make good with
+me on theirs; and--"
+
+Cappy Ricks held up his hand.
+
+"My dear boy," he said with maddening calm, "listen to me!  I had a
+hunch this would happen.  As a matter of fact, I declined to charter
+to Morrow & Company direct ten days before you came prancing in with
+your head all swelled up with a brand-new idea for making a lot of
+easy money in a hurry.  Me charter to them--me!"  In his superb scorn
+Cappy waxed ungrammatical.  "I should kiss a pig!  Why, if sawmills
+were selling for six bits each I wouldn't trust that concern with a
+hatful of sawdust--not that they weren't honest and capable, but they
+haven't got any money to speak of any more!"
+
+"But--but--Why, dad burn it, sir, you said it was perfectly agreeable
+to you to have me charter the Tillicum to them!" Matt roared, angry,
+hurt and amazed.
+
+"Why should I worry what you do?  I have all I can do to attend to my
+own business.  Why should I tell you yours?"
+
+"But--"
+
+"No ifs or buts, Matt.  I played safe; but you're caught away off
+third base and now you're out!  You've got to settle with me for every
+day you have that vessel under charter until you deliver her back here
+in San Francisco Bay and formally surrender her to me.  You've got to
+pay me--and what's more, I'm going to see to it that you do!  Business
+is business, my boy."
+
+"Well, I'll pay you all the cash I can and give you my note for the
+remainder."
+
+"Your note!" Cappy jeered.  "Your note!  What do I want with your
+note!  Is it hockable at any bank?  Huh!  Answer me that."
+
+"You needn't insult me!" Matt growled wrathfully.
+
+"Bah!" Cappy sneered.  "You think you're mighty smart, don't you,
+Matt?  Do you remember what I told you when you declined to go to work
+for me and insisted on going into business for yourself?  I told you
+you'd go bust--and you're going right now.  All you'll have left in
+thirty days will be the clothes you stand in and the corporation seal
+of the Pacific Shipping Company.  Ho-ho!  Isn't that funny?  The idea
+of a man's paying thirty thousand dollars for a dinky old corporation
+seal worth two and a half!"
+
+Matt Peasley's face went white with suppressed fury.
+
+"Yes," he said quietly.  "I seem to remember some such prophecy; also,
+some conversation to the effect that I'd be a better business man if I
+purchased my business experience with my own money.  You said there
+were wolves along California Street that would take my roll away from
+me so fast it'd surprise me.  I must confess, however, that I had no
+idea you would lead the pack!  However, I didn't come here to argue,
+Mr. Ricks--"
+
+"What did you come for?  Sympathy?" Cappy queried.  "Because, if you
+did, you've come to the wrong shop, my boy.  Business is business,
+Matt; I never mix sentiment with it and I advise you never to do it
+either.  Pay your way and take your beating like a sport--that's my
+policy, Matt."
+
+"Do you want to save the Blue Star Navigation Company some money?"
+Matt managed to articulate.
+
+"Certainly!  Now you're talking business; so I'll listen."
+
+"As charterer of your steamer Tillicum, I find that Captain Grant, the
+master you installed there, is offensive to me.  I object to the way
+he parts his hair and knots his necktie, and I want a new skipper on
+the ship."
+
+Cappy Ricks slid out to the edge of his swivel chair, placed a hand on
+each knee and eyed Matt suspiciously over the rims of his spectacles.
+After a long silence he shook his head negatively.
+
+"Then I'll sue you!" Matt replied.  "There's a clause in the charter
+party.  You've got to do it."
+
+Cappy's mouth flew open.
+
+"Oh, by Judas Priest, that's right," he said, and laughed.  "So you're
+providing a job for yourself after the smoke clears away, eh?" he
+quizzed.  "Well, you can skipper the Tillicum while you keep up the
+payments of the charter money, Matt; but I give you my word that the
+day you slip up on a payment, out you go and back Captain Grant goes
+into the ship.  Meantime, however, I think I see now why you inserted
+that clause.  In the event of just such a contingency as the present
+you wanted the privilege of jumping in and taking command yourself."
+
+Matt nodded.
+
+"Captain Grant is a good man, but old.  He can't drive a crew like I
+can, Mr. Ricks--and, with me on the job, that steamer will be
+discharged and back in San Francisco Bay from three to five days
+sooner that she would ordinarily.  It means six hundred dollars a day
+to me, sir, and every day saved is worth that much cash in hand to
+you, since you profess to think so lightly of my promissory note."
+
+"Enough!" Cappy commanded.  "I'll admit that the thought does you
+credit.  It was a mighty bright idea, Matt, and showed fine
+forethought.  Now, then, what are you going to do to save your roll?"
+
+"The City of Para leaves for Panama to-morrow.  Give me a letter to
+Captain Grant, commanding him to turn his ship over to me on
+presentation of this letter.  I will furnish him the funds to pay his
+transportation back to San Francisco."
+
+"Fair enough," said Cappy; and, calling in a stenographer, he dictated
+the desired letter.
+
+Ten minutes later Matt Peasley had left the office without the
+formality of saying good-by to Cappy Ricks, and was in a taxicab en
+route to his lodgings to pack his steamer trunk and hand baggage.
+Cappy Ricks chuckled as Matt went angrily out.
+
+"Ah--that first time a man goes broke!" he soliloquized.  "What a blow
+to one's pride!  What a shock to the nervous system!"  He sighed.
+"Poor old Matt!  Nobody knows better than Cappy Ricks how you feel,
+because he's been there twice and it blamed near broke his heart each
+time it happened."
+
+He shook his head with an air of satisfaction, for things were going
+well with him.  He had made a prophecy and it was in a fair way of
+being fulfilled--nay, its fulfillment was inevitable; whereat Cappy,
+after the habit of the aged in their conflict with Youth, felt very
+much like shaking hands with himself.  Indeed, so pleased was he that
+presently he called in Mr. Skinner and related the story in meticulous
+detail to the general manager.
+
+Mr. Skinner was delighted.  More--he was overcome.  He sat down and
+permitted himself the most soul-satisfying laugh he had had in years.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS
+
+
+Mr. Skinner thrust his head into Cappy Ricks' office and said:
+
+"I've just had a telephone message from the Merchants' Exchange.  The
+Tillicum is passing in."
+
+"Then," said Cappy Ricks, "in about two hours at the latest we may
+expect a mournful visit from Captain Matt Peasley."
+
+"If you don't mind, Mr. Ricks," said Skinner with a smirk, "I should
+dearly love to be present at the interview."
+
+Cappy smiled brightly.
+
+"By all means, Skinner, my dear boy; by all means, since you wish it.
+It just about breaks my heart to think of the cargo of grief I'm going
+to slip that boy; but I have resolved to be firm, Skinner.  He owes us
+eighteen thousand dollars and he must go through with his contract to
+the very letter, and pay the Blue Star Navigation Company every last
+cent due it.  He will, doubtless, suggest some sort of settlement--ten
+cents on the dollar--"
+
+"Don't agree to it," Mr. Skinner pleaded.  "He has more than a
+thousand dollars a month going to his credit on our books from the
+Unicorn charter, and if that vessel stays afloat a year longer we'll
+be in the clear.  Be very firm with him, Mr. Ricks.  As you say, it is
+all for his own benefit and the experience will do him a whole lot of
+good."
+
+"I love the boy," said Cappy; "but in the present case, Skinner, I
+haven't any heart.  A chunk of anthracite coal is softer than that
+particular organ this morning.  Be sure to show Matt in the minute he
+comes up from the dock."
+
+Mr. Skinner needed no urging when, less than two hours later, Captain
+Matt Peasley arrived.  Mr. Skinner greeted him courteously and
+followed him into Cappy's office.
+
+"Well, well, well!" Cappy began unctuously.  "How do you do, Matt, my
+dear boy?  Glad to see you; in fact, we're extra glad to see you," he
+added significantly and winked at Mr. Skinner, who caught the hint and
+murmured loud enough for Matt Peasley to hear:
+
+"Eighteen thousand dollars to-morrow!"
+
+Cappy extended a hand, which Matt grasped heartily.
+
+"You're looking fit as a fiddle," Cappy continued.  "Doesn't look a
+bit worried--does he, Skinner?"
+
+"I must admit he appears to carry it off very well, Mr. Ricks.  We had
+thought, captain," Skinner continued, turning to Matt Peasley, "that,
+when Mr. Ricks agreed to permit you to assume command of the Tillicum
+when she reached Panama, we might have been treated to an exhibition
+of speed; but the fact of the matter is that instead of economizing on
+time you are about ten days in excess of the period it would have
+taken for Captain Grant to have discharged his cargo and gotten back
+to San Francisco."  He winked at Cappy Ricks, who returned the wink.
+
+"You mean in ballast," Matt suggested.  Skinner nodded.  "Oh, well,
+that accounts for it," Matt continued serenely.  "I came home with a
+cargo of steel rails."
+
+Cappy Ricks slid out to the extreme edge of his swivel chair; and,
+with a hand on each knee, he gazed at Matt Peasley over the rims of
+his spectacles.  Mr. Skinner started violently.
+
+"You came home with a cargo of steel rails?" Cappy demanded
+incredulously.
+
+"Certainly!  Do you suppose I would go to the expense of hiring
+somebody else to skipper the Tillicum while I was there with my
+license?  Not by a jugful!  I was saving every dollar I could.  I had
+to."
+
+"Er--er--Where is Captain Grant?" Skinner demanded.
+
+"Captain Grant is free, white and twenty-one.  He goes where he
+pleases without consulting me, Mr. Skinner.  He means nothing in my
+life--so why should I know where he is?"
+
+"You infernal scoundrel!" shrilled Cappy Ricks.  "You whaled hell out
+of him and threw him out on the dock at Panama--that's what you did to
+him!  You took the Tillicum away from him by force."
+
+"Captain Grant is a fine, elderly gentleman, sir," Matt interrupted.
+"I would not use force on him.  He left the ship of his own free will
+at San Diego, California."
+
+"At San Diego?" Cappy and Skinner cried in unison.
+
+"At San Diego."
+
+"But you said you were going to Panama on the City of Para, the
+regular passenger liner," Cappy challenged.
+
+"Well, I wasn't committed to that course, sir.  After leaving your
+office I changed my mind.  I figured the Tillicum was somewhere off
+the coast of Lower California; so I wirelessed Captain Grant,
+explained to him that the ship was back on my hands by reason of the
+failure of Morrow & Company, and ordered him to put into San Diego for
+further orders.  He proceeded there; I proceeded there; we met; I
+presented your letter relieving him of his command.  Simple enough,
+isn't it?"
+
+"But what became of him?"
+
+"How should I know, sir?  I've been as busy as a bird dog down in
+Panama.  Please let me get on with my story.  I had just cleared Point
+Loma and was about to surrender the bridge to my first mate when an
+interesting little message came trickling out of the ether--and my
+wireless boy picked it up, because it was addressed to 'Captain Grant,
+Master S. S. Tillicum.'"
+
+Cappy Ricks quivered and licked his lower lip, but said nothing.
+
+"That message," Matt continued, "was brought to me by the operator,
+who really didn't know what to do with it.  Captain Grant had left the
+ship and Sparks didn't know what hotel in San Diego the late master of
+the Tillicum would put up for the night; so I read the message to see
+whether it was important, for I felt that it had to do with the ship's
+business and that I was justified in reading it."
+
+Again Cappy Ricks squirmed.  Mr. Skinner commenced to gnaw his thumb
+nail.
+
+"That message broke me all up," Matt continued sadly.  "It destroyed
+completely my faith in human nature and demonstrated beyond a doubt
+that there is no such thing in this world as fair play in business.
+It's like a waterfront fight.  You just get your man down and
+everything goes--kicking, biting, gouging, knee-work!"  Matt sighed
+dolorously and drew from his vest pocket a scrap of paper.  "Just
+listen to this for a message!"  He continued.  "Just imagine how nice
+you'd feel, Mr. Ricks, if you were skippering a boat and picked up a
+message like this at sea:
+
+  "'Grant, Master Steamer Tillicum:  Gave Captain Matt Peasley a
+  letter to you yesterday ordering you to turn over command of
+  Tillicum to him on presentation or demand.  This on his request
+  and on his insistence, as per clause in charter party, copy of
+  which you have.  Peasley leaves to-day for Panama on City of
+  Para.  This will be your authority for declining to surrender
+  the ship to him when he comes aboard there.  Stand pat!  Letter
+  with complete instructions for your guidance follows on City of
+  Para.
+
+                                             Ricks.'"
+
+Cappy Ricks commenced tapping one foot nervously against the other,
+Mr. Skinner coughed perfunctorily, while Matt withered each with a
+rather sorrowful glance.
+
+"Of course you can imagine the shock this gave me.  I give you my word
+that for as much as five seconds I didn't know what to do; but after
+that I got real busy.  I swung the ship and came ramping back to San
+Diego harbor, slipped ashore in the small boat and found Captain Grant
+at the railroad station buying a ticket for San Francisco.  I had to
+wait and watch the ticket office for an hour before he showed up, and
+when he did I made him a proposition.  I told him that if he would
+agree to keep away from the office of the Blue Star Navigation Company
+you might think he was peeved at being relieved of his command so
+peremptorily, and hence would not attach any importance to his failure
+to report at the office.
+
+"In consideration of this I gave him my word of honor that he would be
+restored to his command as soon as I could bring the Tillicum back
+from Panama, and meantime his salary would continue just the same--in
+proof of which I gave him a check for two months' pay in advance.  He
+said he thought it all a very queer proceeding; but, since he was no
+longer in command of the Tillicum, it wasn't up to him to ask
+questions, and he agreed to my proposition.  However, he said he
+thought he ought to wire the company acknowledging receipt of their
+instructions with reference to surrendering his command--and I agreed
+with him that he should.  'But,' I said, 'why bother sending such a
+message, collect, ashore, when we pay a flat monthly rate to the
+wireless company for the plant and operator aboard the ship, no matter
+how many messages we send?  Give me your message to Mr. Ricks and when
+I get back aboard the Tillicum I'll wireless it to him for you, and it
+won't cost the ship a cent extra.'
+
+"Well, you know your own captains, Mr. Ricks.  They'll save their
+ships a dollar wherever they can; and simple, honest Old Man Grant
+agreed to my suggestion.  Before he had an opportunity to consider I
+stepped to the telegraph office and wrote this message for him."  Matt
+produced another telegram and read:
+
+  "'Blue Star Navigation Company,
+    "'258 California Street, San Francisco.
+
+  "'Instructions with reference to change of masters received.
+
+  Would feel badly if I thought any act of mine necessitated
+  change; but since my conscience is clear I shall not worry.  I
+  always have done and always shall do my duty to my owners
+  without thought of my personal interests, and you may rely
+  fully on that in the present emergency.'
+
+"Well, sir, that sounded so infernally grandiloquent to Old Man Grant
+that his hand actually trembled with emotion as he signed it--at my
+suggestion.  You know I'd hate to be tried for forgery.  Then I shook
+hands with him and started for Panama once more--only this time I kept
+right on going; and I didn't spare the fuel oil either.  Why should I?
+It wasn't costing me anything."
+
+Both Cappy and Mr. Skinner winced, as from a blow.  Matt waited for
+them to say something, but they didn't; so after a respectful interval
+he resumed:
+
+"Off the Coronado Islands I sent you Captain Grant's diplomatic
+message.  I was very glad to send it to you, Mr. Ricks, because I knew
+its receipt would make you very happy, and I like to scatter happiness
+wherever I can.  The Scriptures say we should return good for evil."
+
+Cappy Ricks bounded to his feet and shook a skinny fist under Matt
+Peasley's nose.
+
+"You're a damned scoundrel!" he piped, beside himself with rage.  "Be
+careful how you talk to me, young man, or I'll lose my temper; and if
+I ever do--"
+
+"That would be terrible, wouldn't it?" Matt laughed.  "I suppose you'd
+just haul off and biff me one, and I'd think it was autumn with the
+leaves falling!"
+
+Cappy choked, turned purple, sat down again, and glanced covertly at
+Mr. Skinner, who returned the glance with one that seemed to shout
+aloud:  "Mr. Ricks, I smell a rat as big as a Shetland pony.
+Something has slipped and we're covered with blood.  Incredible as it
+may seem, this rowdy Peasley has outthought us!"
+
+"Did you get the letter we sent Captain Grant at Panama?" Skinner
+managed to articulate presently.
+
+Matt nodded affirmatively.
+
+"Opened it, I suppose!" Cappy accused him.
+
+Matt nodded negatively, produced the letter from his pocket and handed
+it to Cappy.
+
+"Where I was raised," he said gently, "they taught boys that it was
+wrong to read other people's private correspondence.  You will note
+that the seal is unbroken."
+
+"Thank God for that!" Cappy Ricks murmured, sotto voice, and tore the
+letter into tiny bits.  "Now, then," he said, "we'll hear the rest of
+your story."
+
+"When did a doctor look you over last?" Matt queried.  "I'm afraid
+you'll die of heart disease before I finish."
+
+"I'm sound in wind and limb," Cappy declared.  "I'm not so young as I
+used to be; but, by Jupiter, there isn't any young pup on the street
+who can tell me where to head in!  What next?"
+
+"Of course, Mr. Ricks, very shortly after I had rechartered the
+Tillicum to Morrow & Company I began to suspect they were shy of
+sufficient capital to run their big business comfortably.  I found it
+very hard to collect; so, fully a month before they went up the spout,
+I commenced to figure on what would happen to me if they did.
+Consequently, I wasn't caught napping.  On the day Morrow committed
+suicide the company gave me a check that was repudiated at the bank.
+I protested it and immediately served formal notice on Morrow &
+Company that their failure to meet the terms of our charter party
+necessitated immediate cancellation; and accordingly I was cancelling
+it."
+
+"Did you send that notice by registered mail?" Skinner demanded.
+
+"You bet!--with a return registry receipt requested."
+
+Cappy nodded at Skinner approvingly, as though to say:  "Smart of him,
+eh?"  Matt continued:
+
+"After sending my wireless to Captain Grant aboard the Tillicum I sent
+a cablegram to the Panama Railroad people informing them that, owing
+to certain circumstances over which I had no control, the steamer
+Tillicum, fully loaded and en route to Panama to discharge cargo, had
+been turned back on my hands by the charterers.  I informed them I had
+diverted the steamer to San Diego for orders, and in the interim,
+unless the Panama Railroad guaranteed me by cable immediately sixty
+per cent. of the through-freight rate for the Tillicum, and a return
+cargo to San Francisco, I would decline to send the Tillicum to
+Panama, but would, on the contrary, divert her to Tehuantepec and
+transship her cargo over the American-Hawaiian road there.  I
+figured--"
+
+"You infernal scoundrel!" Cappy Ricks murmured.  "You--slippery--devil!"
+
+"Of course," Matt went on calmly, "I had no means of knowing what
+freight rate Morrow & Company received; but I figured that they ought
+to get about forty per cent., the Panama Railroad about twenty per
+cent., and the steamer on the Atlantic side the remaining forty.  So I
+decided to play safe and ask sixty per cent. of the through rate,
+figuring that the Panama Railroad would give it to me rather than have
+the Tillicum's cargo diverted over their competitor's road at
+Tehuantepec.  In the first place they were depending on business from
+Morrow & Company's ships; and, with Morrow & Company gone broke and a
+new company liable to take over their line, it would be a bad
+precedent to establish, to permit one cargo to go to the competitor.
+Future cargoes might follow it!
+
+"Then, too, the schedule of the ships on the Atlantic side of the
+Canal doubtless had been made up already, with a view to handling this
+cargo ex-Tillicum, and to lose the cargo would throw that schedule out
+of joint; in fact, from whatever angle I viewed the situation, I could
+see that the railroad company would prefer to give up its twenty per
+cent. rather than decline my terms.  They might think their competitor
+had already made me an offer!  Of course, it was all a mighty bluff on
+my part, but bluffs are not always called, particularly when they're
+made good and strong; and, believe me, my bluff was anything but weak
+in the knees.  I told the Panama people to wire their reply to me at
+San Diego, and when I got to that city, twenty-four hours later, their
+answer was awaiting me."
+
+"They called your bluff?" Mr. Skinner challenged.
+
+"Pooh-pooh for you!" Matt laughed.  "God is good and the devil not
+half bad.  I got the guaranties I asked for, old dear!  Don't you ever
+think I'd have been crazy enough to go to Panama without them."
+
+Cappy jerked forward in his chair again.
+
+"Matt," he said sternly, "you have defaulted in your payments to the
+Blue Star Navigation Company to the tune of eighteen thousand dollars,
+and I'd like to hear what you have to say about that."
+
+"Well, I couldn't help it," Matt replied, "I was shy ten thousand
+dollars when Morrow & Company defaulted on me, and I was at sea when
+the other payment fell due.  However, you had your recourse.  You
+could have canceled the charter on me.  That was a chance I had to
+take.
+
+"Why didn't you grab the ship away from me?  If you had done that you
+would be in the clear to-day instead of up to your neck in grief."
+
+"We'll grab her away from you to-day--never fear!" Cappy promised him.
+"I guess we'll get ours from the freight due on that cargo of steel
+rails you came home with."
+
+"You have another guess coming, Mr. Ricks.  You'll not do any grabbing
+to-day, for the reason that somebody else has already grabbed her."
+
+"Who?" chorused Cappy and Skinner.
+
+"The United States Marshal.  Half an hour ago the Pacific Shipping
+Company libeled her."
+
+"What for, you bonehead?  You haven't any cause for libel, so how can
+you make it stick?"
+
+"The Pacific Shipping Company has cause, and it can make the libel
+stick.  The first mate of the Tillicum assigned to the Pacific
+Shipping Company his claim for wages as mate--"
+
+"Matt, you poor goose!  The Pacific Shipping Company OWE him his
+wages.  Your dink of a company chartered the boat, and we will not pay
+such a ridiculous claim."
+
+"I do not care whether you do or not.  That libel will keep you from
+canceling my charter, although when you failed to cancel when I failed
+to make the payments as stipulated, your laxity must be regarded in
+the eyes of the law as evidence that you voluntarily waived that
+clause in the charter; and after you have voluntarily waived a thing
+twice you'll have a job making it stick the third time."
+
+"If I had only known!" groaned Skinner miserably.
+
+"Besides," Matt continued brightly, "I have a cargo in that vessel,
+and she's under charter to my company at six hundred dollars a day.
+Of course you know very well, Mr. Ricks, that while the United States
+Marshal remains in charge of her I cannot discharge an ounce of that
+cargo or move the ship, or--er--anything.  Well, naturally that will
+be no fault of the Pacific Shipping Company, Mr. Ricks.  It will be up
+to the Blue Star Navigation Company to file a bond and lift that libel
+in order that I may have some use of the ship I have chartered from
+you.  If you do not pull the plaster off of her of course I'll have to
+sue you for heavy damages; and I can refuse to pay you any moneys due
+you."
+
+"We'll lift the libel in an hour," Mr. Skinner declared dramatically;
+and he took down the telephone to call up the attorney for the Blue
+Star.
+
+"Wait!" said Matt.  "I'm not through.  Before I entered the harbor I
+called all hands up on the boat deck and explained matters to them.
+They had been engaged by Morrow & Company, and the firm of Morrow &
+Company was in the bankruptcy court; so the prospects of cash from
+that quarter did not seem encouraging.  The Pacific Shipping Company
+had made a bare-boat charter from the Blue Star Navigation Company,
+and had then made a similar charter to Morrow & Company; consequently
+the Pacific Shipping Company would repudiate payment, and, as
+president and principal stockholder of that company, I took it on
+myself to repudiate any responsibility then and there.
+
+"Then the crew wanted to know what they should do, and I said:  'Why,
+seek the protection of the law, in such cases made and provided.  A
+seaman is not presumed to have any knowledge of the intricate deals
+his owners may put through.  All he knows is that he is employed
+aboard a ship, and if he doesn't get his money from the charterers at
+the completion of the voyage he can libel the ship and collect from
+the owners.  This is a fine new steamer, men, and I, for one, believe
+she is good for what is owing you all; and if you will assign your
+claims to the Pacific Shipping Company I will pay them in full and
+trust to the Blue Star Navigation Company to reimburse me.'  So they
+did that.
+
+"Now go ahead, Mr. Skinner, and lift the libel I put on the vessel for
+my first mate's account, and the instant you get it lifted I'll slap
+another libel on her for account of the second mate.  Get rid of the
+second mate's claim and up bobs the steward, and so on, ad libitum, e
+pluribus unum, now and forever, one and inseparable.  I care not what
+course others may pursue, but as for me, give me liberty or give me
+death!"
+
+Mr. Skinner quietly hung up the telephone receiver.
+
+"And, by the way," Matt continued, "I forgot to mention that I
+requested the steward to stay aboard and make the United States
+Marshal comfortable as soon as he arrived.  In these little matters
+one might as well be courteous, and I should hate to have the Tillicum
+acquire a reputation for being cheap and inhospitable."
+
+"You dirty dog!" cried Cappy Ricks hoarsely.
+
+"Really, my dear Peasley, this matter has passed beyond the joke
+stage," Mr. Skinner began suavely.
+
+"Let me get along with my story," said he.  "The worst is yet to come.
+My attorney informs me--"
+
+"Matt Peasley," said Cappy Ricks, "that's the first lie I ever knew
+you to tell.  You don't have to hire an attorney to tell you where to
+head in, you infernal sea lawyer!"
+
+"I thank you for the compliment," Matt observed quizzically.  "Perhaps
+I deserve it.  However, 'we come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;'
+so, if you will kindly hold over your head, Mr. Ricks, I'll be pleased
+to hit it another swat."
+
+"Well, I'll admit that the failure of Morrow & Company and the Pacific
+Shipping Company to pay the crew of the Tillicum puts the buck up to
+me, and I dare say I'll have to pay," Cappy admitted, his voice
+trembling with rage.
+
+"Well, that isn't the only bill you'll have to pay.  Don't cheer until
+you're out of the woods, Mr. Ricks.  You'll have to pay for a couple
+of thousand barrels of fuel oil, and a lot of engine supplies, and sea
+stores, and laundry, and water--why, Lord bless you, Mr. Ricks, I
+can't begin to think of all the things you're stuck for!"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" Cappy cried triumphantly.  "It was an open-boat
+charter, my son, and you rechartered on the same basis; and, though
+Morrow & Company were originally responsible you'll find that the
+creditors, despairing of collecting from them, will come down on the
+Pacific Shipping Company like a pack of ravening wolves, by thunder!
+Don't YOU cheer until YOU'RE out of the woods!"
+
+"Well, I have a license to cheer," Matt replied, "because I got out of
+the woods a long time ago.  Before the vessel sailed from this port, I
+sent this letter to all her creditors!"  And Matt thrust into Cappy
+Ricks' hand a copy of the letter in question.
+
+"That will not help you at all," Mr. Skinner, who had read the letter
+over Cappy's shoulder, declared.
+
+"It wouldn't--if I hadn't sent it by registered mail and got a return
+receipt," Matt admitted; "but, since I have a receipt from every
+creditor acknowledging the denial of responsibility of the Pacific
+Shipping Company, I'm in the clear.  It was up to the creditors to
+protect their hands before the vessel went to sea!  They had ample
+warning--and I can prove it!  I tell you, Mr. Ricks, when you begin to
+dig into this matter you will find these creditors will claim that
+every article furnished to the Tillicum while Morrow & Company had her
+was ordered on requisitions signed by Captain Grant, your employee, or
+Collins, your chief engineer.  They were your servants and you paid
+their salaries."
+
+"All right then," Cappy challenged.  "Suppose we do have to pay.  How
+about that freight money you collected in Panama--eh?  How about that?
+I guess we'll have an accounting of the freight money, young man."
+
+"I submit, with all due respect, that what I did with that freight
+money I collected in Panama is none of your confounded business.  I
+chartered a vessel from you and she was loaded with a cargo.  The only
+interest you can possibly have in that cargo lies in the fact that the
+Pacific Stevedoring Company stowed it in the vessel and hasn't been
+paid some forty-five hundred dollars for so stowing it, and
+eventually, of course, you'll have to foot the bill as owner of the
+vessel.  That vessel and cargo were thrown back on my hands, not on
+yours; so why should you ask questions about my business?  You've got
+your nerve with you!"
+
+"But you'll have to render an accounting to Morrow & Company," Cappy
+charged.
+
+"I'll not.  They gave me a check that was returned branded 'Not
+sufficient funds;' they didn't keep their charter with me, and if I
+hadn't been a fly young fellow their failure would have ruined me, and
+then a lot they'd care about it!  If I spoke to them about it they'd
+say:  'Well, these things will happen in business.  We're sorry; but
+what can we do about it?'  No, Mr. Ricks; I'm in the clear with Morrow
+& Company, and their creditors will be lucky if I do not present my
+claim for ten thousand dollars because of that worthless check I hold.
+When I collected from the Panama Railroad Company for the freight on
+that southbound cargo I paid myself all Morrow & Company owed me, and
+the rest is velvet if I choose to keep it.  If I do not choose to keep
+it the only honorable course for me to pursue will be to send a
+statement and my check for the balance to the receiver for Morrow &
+Company."
+
+"What!" demanded Mr. Skinner.  "And leave the Blue Star Navigation
+Company to pay the crew?"
+
+"Yes--and the fuel bill, and the butcher and the baker and the
+candlestick maker, and the stevedoring firm, and the whole infernal,
+sorry mess!"
+
+Cappy Ricks motioned to Mr. Skinner to be silent; then he rose and
+placed his hand on Matt's shoulder.
+
+"Matt," he said kindly, "look me in the eyes and see if you can have
+the crust to tell me that, with all that freight money in your
+possession, you do not intend to apply the residue to the payments of
+these claims against the Tillicum."
+
+Matt bent low and peered fiercely into Cappy's face, for all the world
+like a belligerent rooster.
+
+"Once more, my dear Mr. Ricks," he said impressively, I desire to
+inform you that, so far as the steamer Tillicum is concerned, I
+venerate you as a human Christmas tree.  I'm the villain in this
+sketch and proud of it.  You're stabbed to the hilt!  Why should I be
+expected to pay the debts of your steamer?"
+
+"But you used all the materials placed aboard her for your own use and
+benefit."
+
+"That, Mr. Ricks, constitutes my profit," Matt retorted pleasantly.
+"She had fuel oil aboard when she was turned back on me sufficient to
+last her to Panama and return--she had engine supplies, gear, beef in
+the refrigerator, provisions in the storeroom, and clean laundry in
+the linen lockers; in fact, I never went to sea in command of a ship
+that was better found."
+
+"Matt Peasley," said Cappy solemnly, "you think this is funny; but it
+isn't.  You do not realize what you are doing.  Why, this action of
+yours will be construed as highway robbery and no man on the Street
+will trust you.  You must think of your future in business.  If this
+leaks out nobody will ever extend you any credit--"
+
+"I should worry about credit when I have the cash!" Matt retorted.
+"I'm absolutely within the law, and this whole affair is my picnic and
+your funeral.  Moreover, I dare you to give me permission to circulate
+this story up and down California Street!  Yes, sir, I dare you--and
+you aren't game!  Why, everybody would be cheering for me and laughing
+at you, and you'd get about as much sympathy as a rich relative with
+arterial sclerosis.  I haven't any sympathy for you, Mr. Ricks.  You
+got me into this whole mess when a kind word from you would have kept
+me out of it.  But, no; you wouldn't extend me that kind word.  You
+wanted to see me get tangled up and go broke; and when you thought I
+was a dead one you made fun of me and rejoiced in my wretchedness, and
+did everything you could to put me down and out, just so you could
+say:  'Well, I warned you, Matt; but you would go to it.  You have
+nobody to blame but yourself.'
+
+"Of course I realize that you didn't want to make any money out of me;
+but you did want to manhandle me, Mr. Ricks, just as a sporting
+proposition.  Besides, you tried to double-cross me with that wireless
+message.  I knew what you were up to.  You thought you had pulled the
+same stunt on me I pulled on you, and that letter to Captain Grant
+contained full instructions.  However, you wanted to be so slick about
+it you wouldn't get caught with your fingers in the jam; so you
+forbore to cancel my charter.  You figured you'd present me with my
+troubles all in one heap the day I got back from Panama.  I'm onto
+you!"
+
+"Well, I guess we've still got a sting in our tail," Cappy answered
+pertly.  "Slap on your libels.  We'll lift 'em all, and to-morrow
+we'll expect eighteen thousand dollars from you, or I'm afraid,
+Matthew, my boy, you're going to lose that ship with her cargo of
+steel rails, and we'll collect the freight."
+
+"Again you lose.  You'll have to make a formal written demand on me
+for the money before you cancel the charter; and when you do I'll hand
+you a certified check for eighteen thousand dollars.  Don't think for
+a minute that I'm a pauper, Mr. Ricks; because I'm not.  When a fellow
+freights one cargo to Panama and another back, and it doesn't cost him
+a blamed cent to stow the first cargo and cheap Jamaica nigger labor
+to stow the second, and the cost of operating the ship for the round
+trip is absolutely nil--I tell you, sir, there's money in it."
+
+Cappy Ricks' eyes blazed, but he controlled his temper and made one
+final appeal.
+
+"Matt," he said plaintively, "you infernal young cut-up, quit kidding
+the old man!  Don't tell me that a Peasley, of Thomaston, Maine, would
+take advantage of certain adventitious circumstances and the legal
+loopholes provided by our outrageous maritime laws--"
+
+"To swindle the Blue Star Navigation Company!" Mr. Skinner cut in.
+
+"Swindle is an ugly word, Mr. Skinner.  Please do not use it again to
+describe my legitimate business--and don't ask any sympathy of me.
+You two are old enough and experienced enough in the shipping game to
+spin your own tops.  You didn't give me any the best of it; you
+crowded my hand and joggled my elbow, and it would have been the
+signal for a half holiday in the office if I had gone broke."
+
+"But after all Mr. Ricks has done for you--"
+
+"He always had value received, and I asked no favors of him--and
+received none."
+
+"But surely, my dear Matt," Skinner purred, for the first time calling
+his ancient enemy by his Christian name--"surely you're jesting with
+us."
+
+"Skinner, old horse, I was never more serious in my life.  Mr. Alden
+P. Ricks is my ideal of a perfect business man; and just before I left
+for Panama he informed me--rather coldly, I thought--that he never
+mixed sentiment with business.  Moreover, he advised me not to do it
+either.  To surrender to him now would mean the fracturing, for the
+first time in history, of a slogan that has been in the Peasley tribe
+for generations."
+
+"What's that?" Cappy queried with shaking voice.
+
+"Pay your way and take your beating like a sport, sir," Matt shot at
+him.  He drew out his watch.  "Well," he continued, "I guess the
+United States Marshal is in charge of the Tillicum by this time; so
+get busy with the bond and have him removed from the ship.  The minute
+one of those birds lights on my deck I just go crazy!"
+
+"Yes, you do!" screamed Cappy Ricks, completely losing his
+self-control.  "You go crazy--like a fox!"
+
+And then Cappy Ricks did something he had never done before.  He
+swore, with a depth of feeling and a range of language to be equalled
+only by a lumberjack.  Matt Peasley waited until he subsided for lack
+of new invective and then said reproachfully:
+
+"I can't stand this any longer, Mr. Ricks.  I'll have to go now.  Back
+home I belonged to the Congregational Church--"
+
+"Out!" yelled Cappy.  "Out, you vagabond!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+CAPPY PLANS A KNOCK-OUT
+
+
+The morning following Matt Peasley's triumphant return from Panama
+with the steamer Tillicum, Cappy Ricks created a mild sensation in his
+offices by reporting for duty at a quarter past eight.  Mr. Skinner
+was already at his desk, for he was a slave driver who drove himself
+fully as hard as he did those under him.  He glanced up apprehensively
+as Cappy bustled in.
+
+"Why, what has happened, Mr. Ricks?" he queried.
+
+"I have an idea," said Cappy.  "Skinner, my boy, a word with you in
+private."
+
+Mr. Skinner rose with alacrity, for instinct warned him that he was in
+for some fast and clever work.  Cappy sat in at his desk, and Skinner,
+drawing up a chair, sat down beside him and waited respectfully for
+Cappy to begin.
+
+"Skinner," Cappy began impressively, "for many years you and I have
+been harboring the delusion that we are business men, whereas, if we
+can stand to hear the truth told about ourselves, we handle a deal
+with the reckless abandon of a pair of bear cubs juggling hazel nuts."
+
+"I have sufficient self-esteem," Skinner replied stiffly, "not to take
+that pessimistic view of myself.  If you refer to the inglorious rout
+we suffered yesterday in our skirmish with Captain Matt Peasley,
+permit me to remind you, in all respect, that you handled that entire
+deal yourself."
+
+"Bah!" said Cappy witheringly.  "Why, you aided and abetted me,
+Skinner.  You told me my strategy was absolutely flawless."
+
+"I am not the seventh son of a seventh son, sir.  I did not see the
+flaw in your strategy.  You lost by one of those strange accidents
+which must be attributed to the interference of the Almighty in the
+affairs of men."
+
+"Lost!" Cappy jeered.  "Lost!  Skinner, you infuriate me.  I haven't
+lost.  Like John Paul Jones, I haven't yet commenced to fight.
+Skinner, listen to me.  When I get through with that Matt Peasley you
+can take it from me he'll be sore from soul to vermiform appendix."
+
+"If I may be permitted a criticism, sir, I would suggest that you let
+this matter rest right where it is.  Surely you realize the delicate
+position you are in, quarreling with your future son-in-law--"
+
+"Agh-h-h!  Pooh!" snapped Cappy.  "That's all outside office hours.  I
+haven't any grudge against the boy and he knows it.  I don't want his
+little old bank roll--that is, for keeps.  When I went into this deal,
+Skinner, I was actuated by the same benevolent intentions as a man
+that desires to cure a hound pup of sucking eggs.  He fills an egg
+with cayenne pepper and leaves it where the pup can find it--and after
+that the pup sucks no more eggs.  I love this boy Matt like he was my
+own son, but he's too infernally fresh!  He holds people too cheap;
+he's too trustful.  He's made his little wad too easily, and easy
+money never did any man any good.  So I wanted to teach him that
+business is business, and if I could take his roll away from him I was
+going to do it.  Of course, Skinner, I need not remind you that I
+would have loaned him the next minute, without interest and without
+security, every cent I'd taken from him in this deal--"
+
+"But why peeve over it, Mr. Ricks?  If Captain Matt--"
+
+"At my age--to take a beating like that?" Cappy shrilled.
+"Impossible!  Why, he'll tell this story on the Merchants' Exchange,
+and I can't afford that.  Not at my age, Skinner, not at my age!  I
+have a reputation to sustain, and, by the Holy Pink-toed Prophet, I'm
+going to sustain it.  I'm going down fighting like a bear cat.  I know
+he scalded us yesterday, Skinner, but every dog must have his day--and
+that dog-gone Matt's day dawned this morning."
+
+"The only tactical error, if I may appear hypercritical," Skinner said
+suavely, "was your failure to cancel the charter on the very day that
+Matt slipped up on his first advance payment.  If you had done that
+you would have had him.  Don't say I didn't call your attention to the
+fact that his payment was overdue!"
+
+"Yes, if I had done that I would have had him, but how much would I
+have had him for?  Paltry nine thousand dollars!  I wanted him to get
+into the financial quicksands up to his chin--and then I'd have had
+him!  Besides, Skinner, I had to go slow.  Just think what would have
+happened if Florry found me out!  Why, I would have had to call off
+the dogs before I was half through the job."
+
+"He's probably told her all about it by now," Skinner suggested.
+
+"Don't get him wrong," Cappy protested.  "He's no tattle-tale.  He'll
+fight fair.  However, as I was saying, I couldn't do anything raw,
+Skinner.  I had planned, when Matt reached Panama and discovered he
+had been double-crossed to pass the buck up to you!"
+
+Mr. Skinner started, but Cappy continued serenely:
+
+"I planned to be away from the office when the blow-off came, and you
+were to have borne the brunt of Matt's fury and despair.  Why, what
+the devil do I have a general manager for if not to help me out in
+these little affairs?  And besides, Skinner, when he blew in here the
+day Morrow & Company hit the ceiling, he was so excited and worried I
+felt positive he was busted then; so what was the use calling him for
+his overdue payment when if I let him run on I'd have his young soul
+in hock for the next ten years?"  Cappy leaned forward and laid an
+impressive hand on Mr. Skinner's knee.  "You know, Skinner, we really
+need that boy in this office, and it would have been a fine thing to
+have gotten him and gotten him right.  Then he wouldn't be leaving the
+reservation to chase rainbows.  However, as the boys say, I overlooked
+a bet, but I'll not overlook another."
+
+"You said you had an idea," Mr. Skinner suggested.
+
+"I have.  Just at present there is a libel on the Tillicum, and when
+we lift it Matt Peasley is prepared to plaster another libel on her,
+and another, and still another.  Now, as a result of our conversation
+with Matt yesterday, he thinks we'll lift the libel to-day--in fact,
+settle with him for what he paid the crew when they assigned their
+wage claim to his company, and thus prevent any further libels.  Now,
+if we do that it leaves Matt in the clear to commence discharging his
+cargo, but at the same time it makes it incumbent upon him to slam a
+certified check for eighteen thousand dollars down on the Blue Star
+counter, in order to hold the vessel long enough to discharge her and
+collect the freight.  Then he'll turn the vessel back on our hands
+with many thanks--rot him!"
+
+"I have no doubt that such are his intentions, Mr. Ricks; in which
+event he will, of course, be ready with the certified check the
+instant we make formal, written demand upon him for our money.  I
+believe I have already warned you, sir, that we cannot cancel the
+charter without first making formal, written demand for our charter
+money."
+
+"Well," said Cappy, "we'll get round that all right."
+
+"Pray, how?"
+
+"What time did Matt Peasley leave this office after the battle
+yesterday?"
+
+"I should say in the neighborhood of half after three."
+
+"Hum!  Ahem!  Harump-h-h!  The banks close at three, and they do not
+reopen for business until ten this morning.  It is now exactly a
+quarter of nine.  Has Matt Peasley had time to procure a certified
+check since he arrived from Panama--or has he not?"
+
+"The situation admits of no argument," Mr. Skinner admitted.
+
+"Exactly!  He didn't have time yesterday, and he sha'n't have time
+to-day, and to-morrow will be too late, because his money is due us
+to-day!  We shall lift all those libels and free the Tillicum for him;
+then we shall make formal demand upon him for eighteen thousand
+dollars, in cash or certified check--we can legally decline his check
+unless certified--and when he fails to make good we formally cancel
+the charter.  Then what happens?  I'll tell you.  We grab the boat
+with a full cargo from him as he grabbed it from Morrow & Company with
+a full cargo.  Then we collect the freight on that northbound cargo as
+he collected the freight on the southbound cargo, and," Cappy
+continued calmly, "I dare say that freight money will put us in the
+clear on all those bills we're stuck for."
+
+"And to do all this," Skinner remarked sententiously, "it is necessary
+to tie up Matt Peasley's bank account the instant the bank opens this
+morning."
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy feelingly, "you get me almost before I get
+myself.  Now listen, while I give you your orders:  Go right up to our
+attorney's office, take our copy of the charter with you, explain that
+Matt has defaulted in his payments, and instruct our attorney to enter
+suit to collect.  Tell him to get the complaint out and filed within
+three-quarters of an hour, and then, the instant he has filed the
+suit, he is to get out a writ of attachment on the Pacific Shipping
+Company's bank account."
+
+"But we cannot do that, Mr. Ricks.  We must make formal, written
+demand for the payments in arrears before we can proceed to force
+collection--"
+
+"Certainly.  We'll do that after we've tied up his bank account."
+
+"But when we get into court we'll be nonsuited because we didn't do
+that first."
+
+"I sincerely hope so.  But in the meanwhile we've tied up Matt's bank
+account, and while we're arguing the merits of our action in so doing,
+another sun will have set, and when it rises again"--Cappy kissed his
+hand airily into space--"the good ship Tillicum will be back under the
+Blue Star Flag--"
+
+"But Matt Peasley will allege conspiracy and a lot of things, and he
+can sue us and get the boat back and force us to render an accounting
+of that freight money."
+
+"That situation will admit of much argument, Skinner.  However, Matt
+will not sue me.  Florry wouldn't let him!  He'll make us lift the
+attachment on his bank account, and then he'll protect himself and
+tell us to whistle for the eighteen thousand dollars he owes us.
+Whichever way the cat jumps he wins.  What I want to do is break even
+and with a modicum of my self-respect left intact."
+
+"He'll promptly file a bond to lift the attachment--"
+
+"Will he?  Who in this city will go on his bond?  Who does he know?"
+
+"There are bonding companies in business, and for a cash
+consideration--"
+
+"Rot!  They will investigate and ponder before granting his
+application for a bond.  It takes a day or two to get a bond through a
+bonding house, and all I want to do is to tie Matt up for a day.  Now,
+listen!  You see to it that the suit is filed and an attachment levied
+on Matt Peasley's bank account in the Marine National.  That's where
+he keeps his little wad, because I took him over and introduced him
+there myself.  Well, sir, in the meantime I'll call up Matt and
+precipitate a devil of a row with him over the phone.  I'll tell him
+I've made up my mind to fight him to the last ditch and that those
+libels will not be lifted until he lifts them himself.  Of course,
+he'll figure right away that he won't need a certified check to-day,
+and maybe he'll neglect to provide himself with one; or he may be
+chump enough to figure we'll take his check uncertified, and if he
+does that will teach him something."
+
+"Well, I'm betting he'll not be caught napping," Mr. Skinner declared,
+"and if you want my opinion of this new proceeding I will state
+frankly that I am not in favor of it.  It savors too much of
+assination.  Of course, you may do it and get away with it--"
+
+"Pooh!" snorted Cappy.  "Forget it.  At ten minutes of three this
+afternoon the libel on the Tillicum will be lifted, and Matt Peasley
+will be paid in cash the sum he advanced his crew for wages.  That
+will block him from slapping any more libels on her and holding us up.
+Then we'll make formal, written demand upon him for eighteen thousand
+dollars; he won't have it where he can lay his hands on it, and he'll
+be up Salt Creek without a paddle."
+
+"I am not in favor of it," Mr. Skinner reiterated firmly.
+
+"Neither am I, Skinner, but I've got to do something.  Can't let that
+young pup cover me with blood.  No, sir, not at my age, Skinner.  I
+can't afford to be laughed off California Street.  And by the way,
+since when did you become a champion of Matt Peasley?"
+
+Mr. Skinner did not answer.
+
+"Since when?" Cappy repeated.
+
+"Since he administered such a thorough thrashing to the Blue Star
+Navigation Company," Mr. Skinner answered, "and did it without
+prejudice.  He swatted us, and we deserved it, but he didn't get
+angry.  Every time he banged us, he'd look at me as much as to say:
+'I hate to swat you two, but it's got to be done.'  Bang!  'This hurts
+me more than it does you.'  Biff!  And then he went out smiling.  I
+used to think he was an--an--interloper, I thought he had designs on
+the Blue Star Navigation Company and the Ricks Lumber and Logging
+Company, but he hasn't.  He doesn't give a hoot for anything or
+anybody except for what he can be to them; not for what they can be to
+him.  He's brainy and spunky and, by thunder, I'm for him, and if
+you're going to hand him a clout when he isn't looking you'll have to
+do it yourself."
+
+"Skinner," said Cappy Ricks impressively.  "Look me square in the eye.
+Do you refuse orders?"
+
+"I do, sir," Skinner replied, and looked Cappy in the eye so fiercely
+that the old schemer quailed.  "This is an unworthy business, Mr.
+Ricks.  You're trying to teach Matt Peasley some business tricks, and
+he's taught you a few, so be a sport, sir, and pay for your
+education."
+
+"All right," Cappy replied meekly.  "When my own general manager goes
+back on me, I suppose there's nothing to do but quit.  The program
+appears to be impracticable, so we'll say no more about it."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say that, Mr. Ricks," Skinner answered
+feelingly, and forthwith repaired to his own office.
+
+Cappy Ricks gazed after him almost affectionately, and as the door
+closed behind the general manager, Cappy murmured sotto voce:
+
+"Skinner, I've been twenty-five years wondering why the devil I liked
+you, and now I know.  Why, you cold-blooded, efficient, human
+automaton, you've actually got a heart!  Bow! wow!  Faithful Fido
+Skinner was just a-tugging at the chain and dragging the dog house
+after him in his efforts to eat me up!  I hope I go bankrupt if I
+don't raise his salary!"
+
+He turned to a pigeonhole in his desk and drew forth the charter he
+had negotiated months before with Matt Peasley for the Tillicum.  He
+read it over carefully, tucked it in his breast pocket and slipped
+quietly out the door.  One hour later a suit against the Pacific
+Shipping Company was filed in the county clerk's office, and at five
+minutes after ten a deputy-sheriff appeared at the paying-teller's
+window in the Marine National Bank and filed a writ of attachment on
+the funds to their credit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+SKINNER DEVELOPS INTO A HUMAN BEING
+
+
+Cappy Ricks was having his mid-afternoon siesta in his office when
+Captain Matt Peasley appeared at the counter of the general office
+and, without awaiting an invitation to enter, swung through the office
+gate and made straight for Cappy's office.  En route he had to pass
+through Mr. Skinner's lair, and the general manager looked up as Matt
+entered.
+
+"Well, Captain," he said pleasantly, "how goes it?"
+
+"Fine," Matt answered with equal urbanity.  "That was a slick piece of
+work tying up my bank account.  I can't get a bond to-day, the bank is
+closed, and I suppose you're going to insist upon payment of that
+eighteen thousand dollars before midnight to-night or take the
+Tillicum and her cargo away from me."
+
+Mr. Skinner started in genuine amazement.
+
+"Attached your bank account, Matt?  I give you my word of honor I had
+nothing to do with it."
+
+"Well, it's tied up by the Blue Star Navigation Company, and Cappy
+Ricks has served notice on me to call here and pay up or suffer
+cancellation of my charter.  Of course, for all the good my bank
+account is to me this minute he might as well ask me to give him the
+moon."
+
+"I'm truly sorry," said Skinner.  "I protested to Mr. Ricks against
+this action.  I assure you I would not have taken such a course
+myself--under the circumstances."
+
+"Cappy wants cash or a certified check," Matt complained, "and he's
+made it impossible for me to go to my bank and get either--to-day.
+What am I going to do?"
+
+"I'm afraid you're going to lose the Tillicum and her cargo.  The Blue
+Star Navigation Company will doubtless collect the freight on that
+northbound cargo.  Besides, Mr. Ricks has some business offered for
+the Tillicum and wants her back--"
+
+"But I was going to give her back to him as soon as I discharged her
+cargo.  Now, just for that he'll not get her back.  I'll keep her the
+full year."
+
+"But how?" Mr. Skinner queried kindly.
+
+"By paying the Blue Star Navigation Company eighteen thousand dollars
+in good old U. S. yellow-backs."  Matt laughed and drew from his hip
+pocket a roll that would have choked a hippopotamus.  "Skinner, this
+is so rich I'll have to tell you about it, and then if you're good
+I'll let you be present when I put the crusher on Cappy.  His plan was
+without a flaw.  He had me right where he wanted me--only something
+slipped."
+
+"What?" Mr. Skinner demanded breathlessly.
+
+"Why, as soon as my account was attached, the bank called me up and
+told me about it.  I was just about to start for the bank to make a
+deposit of all that freight money I had collected in Panama--about
+twenty-four thousand dollars, more or less--the Panama Railroad gave
+it to me in a lump--exchange on San Francisco, you know--"
+
+"So you cashed that draft at the bank upon which it was drawn--"
+
+"And I'm here with the cash to smother Cappy Ricks!  I'll cover him
+with confusion, the old villain!  Skinner, I give you my word, if he
+hadn't tried to slip one over on me I would never have stuck him with
+all those bills Morrow & Company didn't pay, but now that he's gone
+and attached my bank account--"
+
+Mr. Skinner rose and took Matt Peasley by the arm.
+
+"Matt," he said in the friendliest fashion imaginable.  "You and I
+have clashed since the first day I learned of your existence, but
+we're not going to clash any more."  He pointed to the door leading to
+Cappy Ricks' office.  "One of these days, Matt, whether you want to or
+not, you're going to be occupying that office and giving orders to me,
+and when you do I want to tell you here and now I shall accord you the
+same measure of respect I now accord Mr. Ricks.  I've worked
+twenty-five years for Mr. Ricks.  I--I'm--absurdly fond of him, for
+all his er--er--"
+
+"Why, so am I, Skinner.  I'd do anything to please him--"
+
+"Then do it," Skinner pleaded.  "Give him a cheap victory.  He's an
+old man and he'll enjoy it.  He didn't sleep a wink last night, just
+scheming a way to get a strangle hold on you--it's hard for the old to
+give way to the young, you know--and now he's inside there, just
+hungering for you to arrive so he can jeer at you and lecture you and
+make fun of you.  He doesn't want your money.  Why, he loves you as if
+you were his own boy--"
+
+"But how can I let him get away with this deal?" Matt queried soberly.
+
+"By rushing in on him now and simulating a terrific rage.  Just
+imagine you're on the bridge of a steamer making up to a dock against
+a strong flood tide, with stupid mates fore and aft, and rotten lines
+that won't hold when you get them over the dolphins, and the tide has
+grabbed you and slammed you into the dock and done five hundred
+dollars' worth of damage--just feel like that, Matt--"
+
+"If I do I'll cuss something scandalous," Matt warned him.
+
+"The harder the better."
+
+"And I'm to keep this money in my pocket, and let him cancel my
+charter, and take that northbound cargo away from me, and collect the
+freight on me--"
+
+"Exactly that!  He'll withdraw his suit against you to-morrow and
+release your bank account, and then you decline to pay him the
+eighteen thousand dollars you owe him until he gives an accounting of
+the freight money he's collected.  He'll tell you to go to Halifax,
+but you mustn't mind.  It's going to make him as happy as a fool to
+think he beat you in the end."
+
+A slow smile spread over Matt's face.
+
+"Skinner," he said.  "You're a good old wagon, that's what you are.
+I'm sorry we ever had any mix-up, and we'll never have another--after
+this one--and this is going to be a fake.  You see, Skinner, if we're
+going to put one over on Cappy let's have it one worth while--so this
+is the program.  I've just arrived, with blood in my eye, to clean out
+the Blue Star office, and I'm starting in with the general manager.
+Clinch me now, and we'll wrestle all over the office and bang against
+the furniture and that door there--"
+
+As Cappy Ricks was wont to remark, Mr. Skinner could "get" one before
+one could "get" one's self.
+
+"Get out of my office, you infernal rowdy," he yelled loud enough to
+awaken Cappy Ricks next door.  Then he clinched with Matt Peasley.
+
+"A good fight," said Cappy Ricks half an hour after Matt Peasley had
+been pried away from Mr. Skinner and forced to listen to reason, "is
+the grandest thing in life.  Now there's that crazy boy gone out in a
+rage just because he had the presumption to tangle with me in a
+business deal and get dog-gone well licked!  He put it all over me
+yesterday, thinking I couldn't protect myself.  Well, he knows better
+now, Skinner; he knows better now!  In-fer-nal young scoundrel!  Wow,
+but wasn't he a wild man, Skinner?  Wasn't he though?"  And Cappy
+Ricks chuckled.
+
+"You have probably cured him of sucking eggs," Mr. Skinner observed
+enigmatically.
+
+"Well, I handed the young pup a dose of cayenne pepper, at any rate,"
+Cappy bragged, "and I wouldn't have missed doing it for a cool hundred
+thousand.  Why, Skinner, a man might as well retire from business when
+he gets so weak and feeble and soft-headed he doesn't know how to
+protect himself in the clinches and break-aways."
+
+Mr. Skinner smiled.  "The old dog for the cold scent," he suggested.
+
+"You bet," Cappy cackled triumphantly.  "Skinner, my dear boy, what
+are we paying you?"
+
+"Ten thousand a year, sir."
+
+"Not enough money.  Hereafter pay yourself twelve thousand.  Tut, tut.
+Not a peep out of you, sir, not a peep.  If you do, Skinner, you'll
+spoil the happiest day I've known in twenty years."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+CAPPY PULLS OFF A WEDDING
+
+
+About a week later, Captain Matt Peasley was studying the weather
+chart at the Merchants' Exchange when he heard behind him a
+propitiatory "Ahem!  Hum-m-m!  Harump-h-h-h!"--infallible evidence
+that Cappy Ricks was in the immediate offing, yearning for Matt to
+turn round in order that he might hail the boy and thus re-establish
+diplomatic relations.  Matt, however, elected to be perverse and pay
+no attention to Cappy; instead, he moved closer to the chart and
+affected greater interest in it.
+
+"Hello, you big, sulky boob!" Cappy snapped presently, unable to stand
+the silence any longer.  "Come away from that weather chart.  It's
+blowing a fifty-mile nor'west gale off Point Reyes, and that's all any
+shipping man cares to know to-day.  You haven't got any ships at sea!"
+
+"No; but you have, sir," Matt replied, unable longer to simulate
+indifference to Cappy's presence.  "The Tillicum is bucking into that
+gale this minute, wasting fuel oil and making about four miles an
+hour.  I'm glad you're paying for the oil.  Where are you loading
+her?"
+
+"At Hinch's Mill, in Aberdeen, Grays Harbor; discharge at Honolulu and
+back with sugar."  Cappy came close to Matt and drew the latter's
+great arm through his.  "Say, Matt," he queried plaintively, "are you
+still mad over that walloping I gave you?"
+
+"Well-l, no.  I think I've recovered.  And I'm not willing to admit I
+was walloped.  The best you got out of our little mix-up with the
+Tillicum was a lucky draw."
+
+"I'm still out a lot of money," Cappy admitted.  "You owe me eighteen
+thousand dollars on that charter I canceled on you, Matt, and you
+ought to pay it.  Really, you ought."
+
+"That being tantamount to an admission on your part you cannot go into
+court with clean hands and force me to pay it," Matt flashed back at
+him, "I'll make you a proposition:  You render me an accounting of the
+freight you collected on the cargo you stole from me, and I'll render
+you an accounting for the freight on the cargo I stole from you; then
+we'll get an insurance adjuster in and let him figure out, by general
+average, how much I would owe you if I had a conscience; then I'll
+give you my note, due in one year, at six per cent. for whatever the
+amount may be."
+
+"Why not give me the cash?" Cappy pleaded.  "You've got the money in
+bank."
+
+"I know; but I want to use it for a year."
+
+"Your note's no good to me," Cappy protested.  "I told you once before
+it wasn't hockable at any bank."
+
+"Then I'll withdraw my proposition."
+
+"And present a substitute?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"I guess I'll take your note," Cappy said eagerly.
+
+"I thank you for the compliment," Matt laughed; and Cappy, no longer
+able to dissemble, laughed with him--and their feud was over.
+Consequently, post-mortems being in order, Matt went on:  "I feel
+pretty sneaky about sticking you with all those bills on the Tillicum
+that Morrow & Company defaulted on, just because the law enabled me to
+do so--but you did your best to ruin me; you wouldn't have showed me
+any pity or consideration."
+
+"Not a dog-goned bit!" Cappy declared firmly.  "I was out to bust you
+wide open for the good of your immortal soul.  I would have taken your
+roll away from you, my son, by fair means--or--er--legal, if I could."
+He looked up at Matt, with such a smile as he might have applied to a
+lovable and well-beloved son.  "I hope you've got sporting blood
+enough in you to realize I didn't really want your little bank roll,
+Matt," he said half pleadingly.  "I don't know just why I did
+it--except that I'm an old man and I know it; and I hate to be out of
+the running.  I suppose, just because I'm old, I wanted to take a fall
+out of you--you're so young; and--oh, Matt, you do make a scrap so
+worth while!
+
+"And, because I've lived longer in this world and fought harder for
+what I've got than you'll ever have to fight, I wanted to put about
+six feet of hot iron into your soul.  You're a little bit too
+cocksure, Matt.  I tell you it's a mistake to hold your business
+competitor cheap.  I want you to know that the fine gentleman who
+plays cribbage with you at your club to-night will lift the hair off
+your head down here on the Street to-morrow, because that's the game;
+and nobody shakes hands with you before giving you the poke that puts
+you to sleep.  There are a lot of old men out in the almshouse just
+because they trusted too much in human nature; and I wanted to show
+you how hard and cruel men can be and excuse their piracy on the plea
+that it is business!  I tell you, Matt Peasley, when you've lived as
+long as I have you'll know men for the swine they are whenever they
+see some real money in sight."
+
+"Well, I shouldn't be surprised if you got the lesson over after all,"
+Matt replied gravely.  "You certainly made me step lively to keep from
+getting run over.  You scared me out of a year's growth."
+
+Cappy laughed contentedly.
+
+"And what are you going to do with all this money you admit you owe me
+and decline to let me see the color of for a year?"
+
+"Do you really want to know?" Matt queried.
+
+"I'll take you to luncheon up at the Commercial Club if you'll tell
+me."
+
+Matt bent low and whispered in Cappy's ear:
+
+"I'm going to marry your daughter.  I'll have to furnish a home and--"
+
+"No excuse!" said Cappy fiercely.  "Son, all you've got to buy is the
+wedding ring and the license, and some clothes.  I'm stuck for the
+wedding expenses and you don't have to furnish a home.  My house is
+big enough for three, isn't it?"
+
+"But this thing of living with your wife's relations--" Matt began
+mischievously, until he saw the pain and the loneliness in Cappy's
+kind old eyes.  "Oh, well," he hastened to add, "pull it off to suit
+yourself; but don't waste any time."
+
+"In-fer-nal young scoundrel!" Cappy cried happily.  "We've waited too
+long already."
+
+Florry was a June bride, and the proudest and happiest man present,
+not excepting the groom, was old Cappy Ricks.  He looked fully two
+inches taller as he walked up the church aisle, with Florry on his
+arm, and handed her over to Matt Peasley, waiting at the altar.  And
+when the ceremony was over, and Matt had entered the waiting limousine
+with his bride, Cappy Ricks stood on the church steps among a dozen of
+his young friends from the wholesale lumber and shipping trade and
+made a brief oration.
+
+"Take a good look at him, boys," he said proudly.  "You fresh young
+fellows will have to tangle with him one of these bright days; and
+when you do he'll make hell look like a summer holiday to you.  See if
+he doesn't!"
+
+Later, when Matt and Florry, about to leave on their honeymoon, were
+saying good-bye, Matt put his huge arm round Cappy and gave him a
+filial hug.  Cappy's eyes filled with tears.
+
+"I guess we understand each other, sonny," he said haltingly.  "I've
+wanted a son like you, Matt.  Had a boy once--little chap--just seven
+when he died--might have been big like you.  I was the runt of the
+Ricks' tribe, you know--all the other boys over six feet--and his
+mother's people--same stock.  I--I--"
+
+Matt patted his shoulder.  Truly he understood.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+A SHIP FORGOTTEN
+
+
+The Blue Star Navigation Company's big steam schooner Amelia Ricks,
+northbound to load lumber at Aberdeen in command of a skipper who
+revered his berth to such an extent that he thought only of pleasing
+Mr. Skinner by making fast time, thus failing to take into
+consideration a two-mile current setting shoreward, had come to grief.
+Her skipper had cut a corner once too often and started overland with
+her right across the toe of Point Gorda.  Her wireless brought two
+tugs hastening up from San Francisco; but, before they could haul her
+off at high tide, the jagged reef had chewed her bottom to rags, and
+in a submerged condition she was towed back to port and kicked into
+the dry dock at Hunters Point.
+
+Cappy Ricks, feverishly excited over the affair, was very anxious to
+get a report on the condition of the vessel as soon as possible.  He
+had planned to hire a launch and proceed to Hunters Point for a
+personal appraisal of the damage to the Amelia Ricks, but the
+northwest trades were blowing half a gale that day and had kicked up
+just sufficient sea to warn Cappy that seasickness would be his
+portion if he essayed to brave it in a launch.  It occurred to him,
+therefore, to stay in the office and send somebody in whose knowledge
+of ships he had profound confidence.  He got Matt Peasley on the phone
+at once.
+
+"Matt," he said plaintively. "I want you to do the old man a favor, if
+you will.  You heard about our Amelia Ricks, didn't you?  Well, she's
+in dry dock at Hunters Point now, and they'll have the dock pumped out
+in two hours so we can see what her bottom looks like.  I know she's
+ripped out clear up to the garboards and probably hogged, and I can
+hardly wait to make sure.  The marine surveyor for the Underwriters
+will go down this afternoon to look her over, and then he'll take a
+day to present his long, typewritten report--and I can't wait that
+long.  Will you skip down to Crowley's boathouse, hire a launch and
+charge it to us, and go down to see the Amelia?  She'll be shored up
+by the time you get down there.  Make a good quick examination of the
+damage and hurry back so I can talk it over with you.  I go a heap on
+your judgment, Matt."
+
+"I'll start right away, sir," Matt promised, glad of any opportunity
+to favor Cappy.
+
+Two hours later, on his way back to the Mission Street bulkhead, he
+passed, in Mission Bay, a huge, rusty red box of a steel freighter,
+swinging at anchor.  Under ordinary weather conditions Matt would have
+paid no attention to her; but, as has already been stated, the
+northwest trades were blowing a gale and had kicked up a sea; hence
+the steamer was rolling freely at her anchorage, and as the launch
+bobbed by to windward of her she rolled far over to leeward--and Matt
+saw something that challenged his immediate attention and provoked his
+profound disgust.  The sides of the vessel below the water line were
+incrusted with barnacles and eelgrass fully six inches thick!
+
+No skipper that ever set foot on a bridge could pass that scaly hulk
+unmoved.  Matt Peasley said uncomplimentary things about the owners of
+the vessel and directed the launchman to pass in under her stern, in
+order that he might read her name.  She proved to be the Narcissus, of
+London.
+
+He stood in the stern of the launch, staring thoughtfully after the
+Narcissus, and before his mind there floated that vision of the
+barnacles and eelgrass, infallible evidence that the years had been
+long since the Narcissus had been hauled out.
+
+"Do you know how long that steamer has lain there?" he queried of the
+launchman.
+
+"I been runnin' launches to and from Hunters Point for seven years an'
+she was there when I come on the job," the latter answered.
+
+"It's no place for a good ship," Matt Peasley murmured musingly.  "She
+ought to be out on the dark blue, loaded and earning good money for
+her owners.  I must find out why she isn't doing it."
+
+Having rendered a meticulous report to Cappy on the condition of the
+Amelia Ricks, Matt, his brain still filled with thoughts of that
+lonely big steamer swinging neglected in Mission Bay among the rotting
+oyster boats and old clipper ships waiting to be converted into coal
+hulks, proceeded to the Merchants' Exchange where Lloyds' Register
+soon put him in possession of the following information:
+
+The steamer Narcissus had been built in Glasgow in 1894 by Sutherland
+& Sons, Limited.  She was four hundred and fifty-five feet long,
+fifty-eight feet beam and thirty-one feet draft.  She had
+triple-expansion engines of two thousand indicated horse power, two
+Scotch boilers, and was of seventy-five hundred tons net register.
+
+"Huh!" Matt murmured.  "She'll carry forty per cent. more than her
+registered tonnage; if I had the loading of her she'd carry fifty per
+cent. more, at certain seasons of the year.  I wonder why her owners
+have let her lie idle for eight years?  I'll have to ask Jerry Dooley.
+He knows everything about ships that a landsman can possibly know."
+
+Jerry Dooley had presided over the desk at the Merchants' Exchange for
+so many years that there was a rumor current to the effect that he had
+been there in the days when the water used to come up to Montgomery
+Street.  Before Jerry's desk the skippers of all nations came and
+went; to him there drifted inevitably all of the little, intimate
+gossip of the shipping world.  If somebody built a ship and she had
+trouble with her oil burners on the trial trip, Jerry Dooley would
+know all about it before that vessel got back to her dock again.  If
+somebody else's ship was a wet boat, Jerry knew of it, and could,
+moreover, give one the name of the naval architect responsible; if a
+vessel had been hogged on a reef, Jerry could tell you the name of the
+reef, the date of the wreck, the location of the hog, and all about
+the trouble they had keeping her cargo dry as a result.  To this human
+encyclopedia, therefore, did Matt Peasley come in his still-hunt for
+information touching the steamer Narcissus.
+
+He opened negotiations by handing Jerry Dooley a good cigar.  Jerry
+examined it, saw that it was a good cigar, and said:  "I don't smoke
+myself, but I have a brother that does."  He fixed Matt Peasley with
+an alert, inquisitive eye and said:  "Well, what do you know,
+Captain?"
+
+"Nothing much.  What do you know about the steamer Narcissus?"
+
+Jerry Dooley scratched his red head.
+
+"Narcissus!" he murmured.  "Narcissus!  By George, it's a long time
+since I heard of her.  Has she just come into port?"  And he glanced
+apprehensively at the register of arrivals and departures, wondering
+if he hadn't overlooked the Narcissus.
+
+"She's been in port eight years at least," Matt answered; "tucked away
+down in Mission Bay, with a watchman aboard."
+
+"Oh, I remember now," Jerry replied.  "She belongs to the Oriental
+Steamship Company.  Old man Webb, of the Oriental Company, got all
+worked up about the possibilities of the Oriental trade right after
+the Spanish War.  He had a lot of old bottoms running in the combined
+freight and passenger trade and not making expenses when the war came
+along, and the Government grabbed all his boats for transports to rush
+troops over to the Philippines.  That was fine business for quite a
+while and the Oriental got out of the hole and made a lot of money
+besides.  About that time Old Webb saw a vision of huge Oriental trade
+for the man who would go after it, and in his excitement he purchased
+the Narcissus.  She carried horses down to the Philippines, and to
+China during the Boxer uprising; and when that business was over, and
+while old Webb was waiting for the expected boom in trade to the
+Orient, he got a lumber charter for her from Puget Sound to Australia.
+But she was never built for a lumber boat, though she carried six
+million five hundred thousand feet; she was so big and it took so long
+to load and discharge her that she lost twenty-five thousand dollars
+on the voyage.  Run her in the lumber trade and the demurrage would
+break a national bank.
+
+"Well, sir, after that lumber charter, old man Webb had a fit.  He
+tried her out on a few grain charters, but she didn't make any money
+to speak of; and about that time the P. & S. W., with a view to
+grabbing some Oriental freight for their road, got the control of the
+steamship company away from Webb.  The Oriental trade boom never
+developed, and the regular steamers, carrying freight and passengers,
+were ample to cope with what business the company was offered; so they
+didn't need the Narcissus.
+
+"As I remember it, she was expensive to operate.  She had a punk pair
+of boilers or she needed another boiler--or something; at any rate,
+she was a hog on coal, and they laid her up until such time as they
+could find use for her.  I suppose after she was laid up a few years
+the thought of all the money it would cost to put her in commission
+again discouraged them--and she's been down in Mission Bay ever
+since."
+
+"But the Canal will soon be open," Matt suggested.  "One would suppose
+they'd put her in commission and find business for her between Pacific
+and Atlantic coast ports."
+
+"You forget she's a foreign-built vessel and hence cannot run between
+American ports."
+
+"She can run between North and South American ports," Matt replied
+doggedly.  "I bet if I owned her I'd dig up enough business in Brazil
+and the Argentine to keep her busy.  I'd be dodging backward and
+forward through the Canal."
+
+"You would, of course," Jerry answered placidly; "but the Oriental
+Steamship Company cannot."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Fifty-one per cent. of their stock is owned by a railroad--and under
+the law no railroad-owned ship may use the Canal."
+
+Matt's eyebrows arched.
+
+"Ah!" he murmured.  "Then that's one of the reasons why she's a white
+elephant on their hands."
+
+"Got a customer for her?" Jerry queried shrewdly.  "A fellow ought to
+be able to pick the Narcissus up rather cheap."
+
+Matt shook his head negatively.
+
+"Happened to pass her in a launch a couple of hours ago, and the sight
+of the barnacles on her bottom just naturally graveled me and roused
+my curiosity.  Much obliged for your information."  And Matt excused
+himself and strolled over to the counter of the Hydro-graphic Office
+to look over the recent bulletins to masters.
+
+The information that the whistling buoy off Duxbury Reef had gone
+adrift and that Blunt's Reef Lightship would be withdrawn for fifteen
+days for repairs and docking interested him but little, however.  In
+his mind's eye there loomed the picture of that great red freighter,
+with her foul bottom, rusty funnel and unpainted, weather-beaten upper
+works.
+
+"Her bridge is pretty well exposed to the weather," he murmured.  "I'd
+build it up so the man on watch could just look over it.  I noticed
+they'd had the good sense to house over her winches, so I dare say
+they're in good shape; her paint will have prevented rust below the
+water line, and I'll bet she's as sound as the day she was built.  I
+think I'd paint her dead black, with red underbody and terra-cotta
+upper works."  He pondered.  "Yes, and I'd paint her funnel dead
+black, too, with a broad red band; and on both sides of the funnel, in
+the center of this red band, I'd have a white diamond with a black P
+in the center of it.  By George, they'd know the Peasley Line as far
+as they could see it!"
+
+He would have dreamed on had he not bethought himself suddenly of his
+modest capital--fifty thousand-odd dollars, out of which he owed Cappy
+Ricks a considerable sum on a promissory note due in one year.  On
+such a meager bank balance it would not do to dream of buying a vessel
+worth nearly four hundred thousand dollars.  Why, it would require
+twenty thousand dollars to put her in commission after all these years
+of idleness, and she had to have another boiler because she was a hog
+on coal; and, in addition, her operating cost would be between nine
+and ten thousand dollars a month.
+
+Matt shook his head and looked round the great room as though in
+search of inspiration.  He found it.  His wandering glance finally
+came to rest on Jerry Dooley's alert countenance.  Jerry crooked a
+finger at him and Matt strolled over to the desk.
+
+"I've been watching you milling the idea round in your head," said
+Jerry.  "I saw you reject it.  You're crazy!  It can be done."
+
+"How?" Matt queried eagerly.
+
+"Go get an option on her for the lowest price you can get--then form a
+syndicate and sell her to them at a higher price; or, if you don't
+want to do that, form your syndicate to buy her at the option price,
+and if you work it right you can get the job of managing owner.  I
+want to tell you that two and one-half per cent. commission on her
+freight earnings would make a nice income."
+
+"I wonder whom I could get into the syndicate?" Matt queried.
+
+Jerry scratched his head.
+
+"Well," he suggested, "you're mighty close to old Cappy Ricks.  If you
+could hook him for a piece of her, the rest would be easy.  Any
+shipping man on the Street will follow where Cappy Ricks leads.  I'd
+try Pollard & Reilly; Redell, of the West Coast Trading Company; Jack
+Haviland, the ship chandler; Charley Beyers, the ship's grocer and
+butcher; A. B. Cahill & Co., the coal dealers; Pete Hansen, of the
+Bulkhead Hotel down on the Embarcadero--he's always got a couple of
+thousand dollars to put into a clean-cut shipping enterprise.  Then
+there's Rickey, the ship-builder, and--yes, even Alcott, the crimp,
+will take a piece of her.  I'd look in on Louis Wiley, the chronometer
+man, and Cox, the coppersmith--why I'd take in every firm and
+individual who might hope to get business out of the ship; and, you
+bet, I'd sell 'em all a little block of stock in the S. S. Narcissus
+Company."
+
+"It might be done," Matt answered evasively.  "I'll think it over."
+
+He did think it over very seriously the greater portion of that night.
+As a result, instead of going to his office next morning he went to
+Mission Street bulkhead and engaged a launch, and forty minutes later,
+in response to his hail, the aged watchman aboard the Narcissus came
+to the rail and asked him what he wanted.
+
+"I want to come aboard!" Matt shouted.
+
+"Got a permit from the office?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Orders are to allow nobody aboard without a permit."
+
+"How do you like the color of this permit?" Matt called back, and
+waved a greenback.
+
+The answer came in the shape of a Jacob's ladder promptly tossed
+overside and Matt Peasley mounted the towering hulk of the Narcissus.
+
+"What do you want?" the watchman again demanded as he pouched the bill
+Matt handed him.
+
+"I want to examine this vessel from bilge to truck," Matt answered.
+"I'll begin with a look at the winches."
+
+As he had surmised, the winches had been housed over and fairly buried
+in grease when the ship laid up; hence they were in absolutely perfect
+condition.  The engines, too, had received the best of care, as nearly
+as Matt could judge from a cursory view.  Her cargo space was littered
+up with a number of grain chutes, which would have to come out; and
+her boats, which had been stored in the empty hold aft, away from the
+weather, were in tiptop shape.  She had a spare anchor, plenty of
+chain, wire cable and Manila lines, though these latter would
+doubtless have to be renewed in their entirety, owing to deterioration
+from age.
+
+Her crew quarters were commodious and ample, and the officers'
+quarters all that could be desired; her galley equipment was complete,
+even to a small auxiliary ice plant.  What she needed was cleaning,
+painting and scraping, and lots of it, also the riggers would be a few
+days on her standing rigging; but, so far as Matt could discern, that
+was all.  From the watchman he learned that one Terence Reardon had
+been her chief engineer in the days when the Oriental Steamship
+Company first owned her.
+
+From the Narcissus, Matt Peasley returned to the city and went at once
+to the office of the Marine Engineers' Association, where he made
+inquiry for Terence Reardon.  It appeared that Terence was chief of
+the Arab, loading grain at Port Costa; so to Port Costa Matt Peasley
+went to interview him.  He found Reardon on deck, enjoying a short
+pipe and a breath of cool air, and introduced himself.
+
+"I understand you were the chief of the Narcissus at one time, Mr.
+Reardon," Matt began abruptly.  "I understand, also, that under your
+coaxing you used to get ten miles out of her loaded."
+
+Parenthetically it may be stated that Matt Peasley had never heard
+anything of the sort; but he knew the weaknesses of chief engineers
+and decided to try a shot in the dark, hoping, by the grace of the
+devil and the luck of a sailor, to score a bull's-eye.  He succeeded
+at least in ringing the bell.
+
+"Coax, is it?" murmured Terence Reardon in his deep Kerry brogue.
+"Faith, thin, the Narcissus niver laid eye on the day she could do
+nine an' a half wit' the kindliest av treatment.  Wirrah, but 'tis
+herself was the glutton for coal.  Sure, whin I'd hand in me report to
+ould Webb, and he'd see where she'd averaged forty ton a day, the big
+tears'd come into the two eyes av him--the Lord ha' mercy on his
+sowl!"
+
+"You never had any trouble with her engines," Matt suggested.
+
+"I had throuble keepin' shteam enough in the b'ilers to run thim; but
+I'll say this for her ingines:  Give them a chancet an' they'd run
+like a chronometer."
+
+"Would you consider an offer to leave the Arab and be chief of the
+Narcissus?" Matt queried.  "I'm thinking of buying her, and if I do
+I'll give you twenty-five dollars a month above the regular
+Association scale."
+
+"I'll go ye," murmured Reardon, "on wan condition:  Ye'll shpend some
+money in her ingine room, else 'tis no matther av use for ye to talk
+to me.  I'll not be afther breakin' me poor heart for the sake av
+twenty-five dollars a month.  Sure, 'twould be wort' that alone to see
+the face av ye, young man, afther wan look at the coal bill."
+
+"What repairs would you suggest?  Do you think she needs another
+boiler?  I noticed she has two.  We could move those two over and make
+room for another."
+
+"Do nothing av the sort, sir.  Before ould Webb got her she'd been
+usin' bad wather down on the East African Coast, I'm thinkin', and it
+raised hell wit' her.  'Tis the expinse av retubin' her condensers
+that always frightened ould Webb, and whin he lost conthrol the
+blatherskite booby av a port ingineer the new owners app'inted come
+down to the ship, looked her over, wit' niver a question to me that
+knew the very sowl av her, and reported to the owners that what she
+needed was another b'iler."  And Terence Reardon laughed the short,
+mirthless chuckle of the man who knows.
+
+"Then," Matt continued, "the money should be spent--"
+
+"In retubing her condensers," declared the engineer emphatically.  "Do
+that an' do a good job on her, an' she'll have shteam enough for thim
+fine big ingines av hers on thirty-two ton a day, an' less.  An' have
+a care would ye buy her until she ships a new crank shaft.  She's a
+crack in the web av the afther crank shaft ye could shtick a knife
+blade into.  She may run for years, but sooner or later some wan'll
+have a salvage claim agin ye if ye neglect it now.  An', for the love
+av heaven, have nothin' to do wit' her big motor.  'Twas bur-rnt out
+by him that had her ahead av me--bad cess to him, whereiver he is!
+An' they did a poor, cheap job av windin' the armature agin.  Ye'll be
+in hot wather wit' the electric-light system until ye put in a new
+motor.
+
+"The rheostat on the searchlight niver was any good; and she may or
+may not need a new whistle--I dunno.  Sure, the skipper niver blew it
+good an' long but the wanst; an', so help me, young man, I was lookin'
+at the shteam gauge whin he shtarted that prolonged blast--an' whin he
+finished the gauge had dhropped tin pounds!  So up I go on the bridge
+to the ould man, an' says I to him, says I:  'Clear weather or thick
+fog, I'm tellin' ye to lave that whistle alone if ye expect to finish
+the voyage.  Wan toot out av it means a ton av coal gone to hell an' a
+dhrop av blood out av the owner's heart!"  An' from that time on the
+best I iver hearrd out av that whistle was a sick sort av a sob."
+
+Matt laughed as Terence Reardon's natural propensity for romancing
+came to the front.  He thanked the chief for the latter's invaluable
+information, and, with a mental resolve to have Terence Reardon
+presiding over the engines of the Narcissus at no distant date, he
+returned to the city.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+THE TAIL GOES WITH THE HIDE
+
+
+The following morning Matt called upon MacCandless, the general
+manager of the Oriental Steamship Company.  Mr. MacCandless was a cold
+individual of Scotch ancestry, with a scent for a dollar a trifle
+keener than most; and Matt Peasley, young and inexperienced in
+business fencing, was never more aware of his deficiencies than when
+he faced MacCandless across the latter's desk.  Consequently, he
+resolved to waste no words in vain parley.  MacCandless was still
+looking curiously at Matt's card when the latter said:
+
+"I called with reference to that big freighter of the Oriental
+Steamship Company--the Narcissus.  Is she for sale?"
+
+MacCandless smiled with his lips, but his eyes wore the eternal
+Show-me! look.  He nodded.
+
+"Foolish of me to ask, I know," Matt continued complacently, "since it
+is a matter of common gossip that you would have been delighted to
+have sold her any time these past eight years."
+
+Since MacCandless did not deny this Matt assumed that it was true and
+returned to the attack with renewed vigor.
+
+"What do you want for her?"
+
+"Are you acting as a broker in this matter or do you represent
+principals who have asked you to interview me?  In other words, before
+I talk business with you I want to know that you mean business.  I
+shall waste no time discussing a possible trade unless you assure me
+that you have a customer in sight.  I am weary of brokers.  I've had
+forty of them after that vessel from time to time, but no business
+ever resulted."
+
+"Which is not at all surprising, considering the circumstances," Matt
+retorted.  "If you cannot use her yourself you mustn't expect other
+people to be over-enthusiastic about owning her.  However, I think I
+can find business for her, and I've come to buy her myself.  You seem
+to think a lot of your time, so I'll conserve it for you.  I'm the
+principal in this deal, and if you really want to get rid of her we'll
+do business in two minutes."
+
+"Three hundred thousand dollars," MacCandless answered promptly.
+
+"Listen," said Matt Peasley.  "I have fifty thousand dollars of my own
+in bank this minute, but I will have to raise two hundred and fifty
+thousand more before I can afford to buy your vessel, even if we agree
+on that price, which does not seem probable.  I'll give you two
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the steamer Narcissus; but when
+you turn her over to me I want a ship, not a piece of floating junk.
+You'll have to ship a new crank shaft, rewind the main motor, renew
+the Manila lines, overhaul the standing rigging, retube the condensers
+and dock her before handing her over to me.  She's as foul as any hulk
+in Rotten Row."
+
+"Why, that will cost in the neighborhood of forty thousand
+dollars--nearer fifty!" MacCandless declared.
+
+"I know.  But for three hundred thousand dollars I can go to Sweden,
+build a smaller vessel than the Narcissus, have her right up to date,
+with two-thousand-horsepower oil-burning motors in her; and the saving
+in space due to motor installation, with oil tanks instead of coal
+bunkers, will enable me to carry fully as much cargo as the Narcissus.
+Also, I'll burn six tons of crude oil a day to your forty tons of
+coal a day in the Narcissus.  I'll employ eight men less in my crew,
+and have a cleaner, faster and better ship.  The motor ship is the
+freighter of the future, and you know it.  Your Narcissus is out of
+date, and I'm only offering you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
+because I can use her right away."
+
+"Young man," said MacCandless, "you talk like a person that means
+business, but you overlook the fact that this company is neither
+bankrupt nor silly.  The directors will, I feel assured, agree to do
+all the work you specify, but the price must be three hundred
+thousand.  That will leave us two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
+net."
+
+"I'll split the difference with you."
+
+MacCandless shook his head.
+
+"Well, that ends our argument," Matt answered pleasantly, and took up
+his hat.  "You can keep your big white elephant another eight years,
+Mr. MacCandless.  Perhaps some principal will come along then and make
+you another offer; and in the interim you can charge off about one
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars interest on the money tied up in
+the Narcissus.  Fine business--I don't think!"  He nodded farewell and
+started for the door.
+
+"But you say you have but fifty thousand dollars," MacCandless
+protested.
+
+"I said I'd have to get two hundred and fifty thousand dollars more.
+Well, I'll do it."
+
+"Quite a sum to raise these days," MacCandless remarked doubtfully.
+
+"Well, if you'll give me a sixty-day option on the Narcissus at two
+hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and agree to do the repairs
+on her, including dry-docking, cleaning and painting her up to the
+water line, I'll take a ten-thousand-dollar chance, Mr. MacCandless,
+that I can raise the money."
+
+"Do you mean you'll give the Oriental Steamship Company ten thousand
+dollars for a sixty-day option?"
+
+"I do; and I'll pay for the vessel as I raise the remainder of the
+money.  Ten thousand dollars down for the option, to apply on the
+purchase price, of course, if the deal goes through, and to be
+forfeited to you if I fail to make the next payment on time."
+
+"What will the next payment be?" the cautious MacCandless demanded.
+
+"Twenty thousand dollars a month, with interest at six per cent. in
+deferred payments.  You might as well be earning six per cent. on her
+as have her rusting holes in her bottom down there in Mission Bay.  As
+she lies, you're losing at least six per cent. interest on her."
+
+"There's reason in that," MacCandless answered thoughtfully.  "You to
+insure the vessel as our interest may appear, bill of sale in escrow;
+and if you default for more than thirty days on any payment before we
+have received fifty per cent. of the purchase price you lose out and
+we get our ship back."
+
+"Sharp business, but I'll take it, Mr. MacCandless.  After I've paid
+half the money I can mortgage her for the remainder and get out from
+under your clutches.  Put the buck up to your directors, get their
+approval to the option and contract of sale, notify me, and I'll be
+right up with a certified check for ten thousand dollars." And,
+without giving MacCandless time to answer, Matt took his departure.
+
+"If I talked ten minutes with that man," he soliloquized, "he'd have
+the number of my mess.  He'd realize what a piker I was and terminate
+the interview.  But--I--think he'll meet my terms, because he sees I'm
+pretty young and inexperienced, and he figures he'll make ten or
+twenty thousand dollars out of me before I discover I'm a rotten
+promoter.  And, at that, his is better than an even-money bet!"
+
+At five o'clock that same day MacCandless telephoned.
+
+"I have called a special meeting of our directors, Captain Peasley,"
+he announced, "and put your proposition up to them.  They have agreed
+to it, and if you will be at my office at ten o'clock to-morrow I
+think we can do business."
+
+"I think so," Matt answered.  "I'll be there."
+
+He hung up, reached for a telegraph blank and wrote the following
+message:
+
+                         San Francisco, July 28, 1914.
+
+  Terence Reardon,
+    Chief Engineer, S. S. Arab,
+      Port Costa, California.
+
+  Have bought Narcissus.  Offer you one hundred seventy-five a
+  month quit Arab now and supervise installation new crank shaft,
+  retubing condensers, and so on; permanent job as chief.  Do you
+  accept?  Answer immediately.
+
+                         PACIFIC SHIPPING COMPANY,
+                                Matthew Peasley, President.
+
+Having dispatched this message, Matt Peasley closed down his desk,
+strolled round to the Blue Star Navigation Company's offices, and
+picked up his newly acquired father-in-law.  On their way home in
+Cappy's carriage the old gentleman, apropos of the afternoon press
+dispatches from Europe, remarked that the situation abroad was
+anything but encouraging.
+
+"Do you think we'll have a war in Europe?" Matt queried.
+
+"Germany seems determined to back up Austria in her demands on Serbia,
+and I don't think Serbia will eat quite all of the dish of dirt
+Francis Joseph has set before her," Cappy answered seriously.
+"Austria seems determined to make an issue of the assassination of the
+Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.  If she does, Matt, there'll be the
+most awful war in history.  All Europe will be fighting."
+
+Matt was silent and thoughtful all the way home, but just before they
+left the carriage he turned to Cappy.
+
+"If there's war," he remarked, "England will, doubtless, control the
+seas because of her superior navy.  German commerce will absolutely
+cease."
+
+"The submarine will have to be reckoned with, also," Cappy suggested.
+"England's commerce will doubtless be knocked into a cocked hat."
+
+"There'll be a shortage of bottoms, and vessels will be in brisk
+demand," Matt predicted.  "There'll be a sharp rise in freight rates
+on all commodities the instant war breaks out, and the American
+mercantile marine ought to reap a harvest."
+
+"My dear boy," said Cappy acidly, "why speak of the American
+mercantile marine?  There ain't no such animal."
+
+"There will be--if the war in Europe ever starts," Matt retorted;
+"and, what's more, I'm going to bet there will be war within thirty
+days."
+
+He did not consider it advisable to mention to Cappy that he was going
+to bet ten thousand dollars!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+VICTORY
+
+
+At ten o'clock the following morning Matt Peasley, accompanied by an
+attorney, an expert in maritime law, presented himself at the Oriental
+Steamship Company's office.  MacCandless and the attorney for his
+company were awaiting them, with a tentative form of contract of sale
+already drawn up, and after a two-hour discussion on various points
+the finished document was finally presented for the signatures of both
+parties, but not, however, until Matt Peasley had been forced to do
+something that brought out a gentle perspiration on the backs of his
+sturdy legs.  Before the shrewd MacCandless would consent to begin the
+work of placing the vessel in commission, according to agreement, he
+stipulated a payment of twenty-five thousand dollars down!  He
+estimated the cost of the docking and repair work at fifty thousand
+dollars, and, desiring to play safe, insisted that Matt Peasley should
+advance at least fifty per cent. of this preliminary outlay in cash.
+
+Matt thereupon excused himself from the conference on the plea that he
+had to consult with others before taking this step.  He was gone about
+fifteen minutes, during which time he consulted with the "others."
+They happened to be two newsboys selling rival afternoon editions.
+Matt Peasley did business with each, and after a quick perusal of both
+papers, he decided that war was inevitable and resolved to take the
+plunge.  In no sense of the word, however, did he believe he was
+gambling.  His conversation with Terence Reardon had convinced him
+that the Narcissus was a misunderstood ship--that she had been poorly
+managed and was the victim of a false financial policy.
+
+Hence, even though the war should not materialize, he would be making
+no mistake in tying her up.  She was a bully gamble and a wonderful
+bargain at the price; with Terence Reardon presiding over her engines
+at a salary twenty-five dollars in excess of the union scale, the
+orders to keep her out of the shop would be followed, so far as lay in
+Terence's power.  Even should he not succeed in financing the
+enterprise Cappy Ricks would be glad to take his bargain off his
+hands--perhaps at a neat profit.  Consequently, Matt went over to his
+bank, procured an additional certified check for fifteen thousand
+dollars and returned to MacCandless' office, where he signed the
+contract of sale and paid over his twenty-five thousand dollars.  He
+trembled a little as he did it.
+
+"I'll have the insurance on her placed this afternoon," MacCandless
+suggested as he handed Matt his copy of the sale contract; whereat the
+latter came to life with galvanic suddenness.
+
+"Oh, no, you'll not, Mr. MacCandless," he suggested smilingly.  "I'll
+place that insurance myself.  My company has to pay for it, so I'll
+act as agent and collect my little old ten per cent. commission.  But,
+passing that, do you want to know the latest--the very latest news?"
+
+"I don't mind," MacCandless replied.
+
+"Well, there's going to be a devil of big war in Europe and I wouldn't
+take four hundred thousand dollars for the Narcissus this minute.  May
+I use your telephone?  Thanks!"  He called up his office.  "Is there a
+telegram there for me?" he queried, and on being answered in the
+affirmative he directed his stenographer to read it to him.  He turned
+to MacCandless.
+
+"Mr. Terence Reardon will have entire charge of the work of retubing
+those condensers, and so on," he explained.  "I'll give him a letter
+to you, which will be his authority to superintend the job.  I'm going
+to New York tonight, but I think I'll be back in time to accept the
+vessel when she's ready for commission."  He looked at his watch.  It
+was just twelve-thirty o'clock.  "The Overland leaves at two-thirty,"
+he murmured.  "I'll have just time to pack a suit case."  And he
+picked up his hat and fled with the celerity and singleness of purpose
+of a tin-canned dog.
+
+Cappy Ricks woke from his mid-afternoon doze to find his son-in-law
+shaking him by the shoulder.
+
+"Well, young man," Cappy began severely, "so you're back, are you?
+Give an account of yourself.  Where the devil have you been for the
+past two weeks?  Why did you go, and why did you have the consummate
+nerve to leave Florry behind you?  Why, you hadn't been married two
+months--"
+
+"I couldn't take her with me, sir," Matt protested.  "I wanted to, but
+she would have been in the way.  You see, I knew I was going to be
+busy night and day."
+
+Cappy Ricks slid out to the edge of his swivel chair; with a hand on
+each knee he gazed at his smiling son-in-law over the rims of his
+spectacles.  For fully a minute he remained motionless.
+
+"Matt," he demanded suspiciously, "what the devil have you been up
+to?"
+
+Matt raised a huge forefinger.
+
+"Number one," he began: "I bought the Oriental Steamship Company's
+freighter Narcissus, seventy-five hundred tons' register, for two
+hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in a month she'll be in
+tiptop shape and ready for sea.  I've paid twenty-five thousand
+dollars down on her and I'll have to make a payment of twenty thousand
+dollars on the twenty-sixth of September and twenty thousand dollars a
+month on her thereafter until she, is paid for.  And if I default on a
+payment for more than thirty days before I've paid off half of the
+purchase price the Oriental Steamship Company may, at its option, take
+the vessel away from me."
+
+Cappy Ricks smiled.
+
+"Ah!" he breathed softly.  "So you want help, eh?  You finally did
+manage to get into deep water close to the shore, and now you're
+yelling to father to come through and save you, eh?  Well, I'll do it,
+my boy, because I think you made a bully buy; and she's worth it.
+I'll take over your bargain for you and give you, say--er--ahem!
+we--harumph-h-h--say twenty-five thousand dollars profit.  Not so bad,
+eh?  When I was your age--" Cappy paused, open-mouthed.  He had
+suddenly remembered something.  "Oh, no," he contradicted himself;
+"this isn't my foolish day--not by a jugful!  You owe me a lot of
+money on that promissory note you gave me when we settled up for that
+Tillicum business--so I'll not give you any money after all.  I'll
+just take the contract of sale off your hands, give you back the money
+you risked in the deal--and your promissory note, cancelled."  And
+Cappy Ricks sat back and clawed his whiskers expectantly.
+
+"Oh, I'm not in distress," Matt answered cheerfully.  "On the
+contrary, I'm going to take up that note before the week is out."
+
+Once more Cappy slid out to the edge of his chair.
+
+"Where are you going to get the money?" he demanded bluntly.
+
+"I'm going to sell the Narcissus.  The day I purchased her it was a
+moral certainty that Europe was to be plunged into a terrible war; so
+the ink wasn't dry on the contract before I was streaking it for New
+York.  War was declared by England on Germany on the fifth of August,
+and while you'd be saying Jack Robinson every German freighter went
+into neutral ports to intern until the war should terminate.  The
+German raiders are still out after the British and French commerce,
+and the deep-water shipping out of Eastern ports isn't a business any
+more.  It's a delirium--a night-mare!  Why, I was offered any number
+of charters for my Narcissus, but I didn't bother trying to charter
+her until just before I started for home; and, moreover, the longer I
+waited the better charter I could make.  Besides, she isn't in
+commission yet--and I had other fish to fry."
+
+"For instance?" Cappy inquired wonderingly.
+
+"It is an undisputed fact that the early bird gets the worm," Matt
+Peasley replied brightly, "and I was the early bird.  I was in New
+York a few days before the war became general, and for a week
+thereafter everybody was so blamed interested in the fighting they
+neglected business.  But I didn't.  I went to New York to charter,
+under the government form, as many big steel freighters as I could lay
+hands on--
+
+Cappy Ricks raised his clasped hands and gazed reverently upward.
+
+"Oh, Lord!" he murmured.  "How many?  How many?"
+
+"Fifteen," Matt Peasley murmured complacently.  "I got about half of
+them real cheap, because business was rotten when I landed in the
+East.  Why, I chartered the entire fleet of one shipping firm in
+Boston.  I had to pay a stiffer rate for the others; but--"
+
+"How long did you charter them for?" Cappy yelled.  "Quick!  Tell me!"
+
+"All for a year, with the privilege of renewal at a ten per cent.
+advance.  I had no difficulty in rechartering to the men who had been
+asleep on the job.  I shall average a profit of two hundred dollars a
+day on each of the fifteen even if I do not charter them longer--"
+
+"A day!"  Cappy's voice rose to a shrill scream.
+
+"A day!  Any American bottom that will float and move through the
+water is worth five times what it was before war was declared, and the
+freight rates are going up every day.  Three thousand dollars a day
+income--three hundred and sixty-five days in the year!  Man, if the
+war lasts a year I'll make a million dollars net!"
+
+"But--but--about this Narcissus?" Cappy sputtered.
+
+"Just before I left for home I chartered her at fourteen hundred
+dollars a day--forty-two thousand dollars a month--on the Government
+form of charter."
+
+"Impossible!" Cappy shrieked, losing all control of himself.
+"Dog-gone you, Matt Peasley, don't tell me such stories.  You're
+driving me crazy!"
+
+"It will cost me nine thousand a month to run her--and she doesn't
+even go near the war zone.  I'm going to run her to South American
+ports."
+
+"How long?"
+
+Matt Peasley smiled.  "How long?" he echoed.  "Why, she's only
+chartered for one trip just now.  You don't suppose I'd charter her
+for several voyages or for a year, on a freight market that's growing
+over-night?"
+
+"And those fifteen vessels you chartered.  You rechartered them.  For
+what period?"
+
+"Three months, with privilege of renewal at the going rates."
+
+"Matt," Cappy murmured, "you're great.  Damn me, sir, I could kiss
+you."
+
+Matt grinned at this earnest commendation.
+
+"Of course I can operate the Narcissus and meet my monthly payments to
+the Oriental Steamship Company and still be ahead of the game," he
+continued.  "But I'm going to sell her, Mr. Ricks.  I've had an offer
+of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her already--and she's
+still waiting to be hauled out on the marine railway and put in
+commission!  I'll just wait one week and by that time she'll bring
+half a million.  At that I hate to sell, but I've got to.  I figure a
+bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
+
+"Why have you got to?" Cappy shrilled.  "You're crazy!  You don't have
+to."
+
+"But the next payment will come due on her before I receive any
+charter money from the Steel people, and that will clean me for fair.
+I can't help myself.  Besides, I've got these other fifteen vessels
+chartered; I'll have to have capital--and I've got to have it quickly
+or I'll be a pauper while you'd be saying Jack Robinson."
+
+"But, Matt, you old dunderhead, you mustn't sell a good thing.  Why,
+man, you've got a million and a half profit right in the hollow of
+your hand; and, oh, we mustn't let it get away, Matt--we mustn't let
+it get away!
+
+"It was magnificent, Matt--perfectly magnificent.  I'll help you,
+sonny.  By golly, I'll go to the bat for you and back you for the last
+dollar I have.  No more monkeyshines between us now, boy!  We've had a
+lot of fun in our day, playing nip and tuck with each other; but this
+is real business.  You've got to be saved."
+
+"I had an idea that you would see it in that light, sir," Matt
+suggested smilingly.  I knew you'd back me up; so I didn't worry.  But
+you'll have to take half the profit on the deals I've made--that's
+only fair."
+
+"Profits!" Cappy Ricks sneered.  "Why, what the devil do I care for
+profits?  You keep the profits.  You and Florry are young and you'll
+know how to enjoy them.  Why, what do you think I am?  A human hog?
+Let me sit in the game with you--let me play the game of business with
+you, son, down to my last buffalo nickel.  I can't take the blamed
+money with me when I die, can I?  But don't ask me to make any money
+out of you, my boy.  I'm going to get my fun watching you in action."
+
+Matt Peasley came close and took old Cappy Ricks' hand in both of his.
+
+"I want to be your partner," he said wistfully.  "I couldn't come into
+this office and sponge off you, and so I've waited until I could buy
+in!  I wanted to bring some assets besides myself when I should come
+to manage the Blue Star.  May I, sir?  I want to turn in this big deal
+I've put over for stock in the Ricks Lumber and Logging Company and
+the Blue Star Navigation Company; and, then, with Skinner managing the
+lumber end, I'll sit in and run the fleet--and you just sit round and
+help and offer advice, Mr. Ricks.  Let me turn in the Narcissus for
+what I have been offered--four hundred and fifty thousand dollars--and
+take stock.
+
+"I don't want to be an employee; I don't want to be just your
+son-in-law, waiting for your shoes.  I want to be your partner--to be
+more than a cog in the machine.  And those freighters I've
+chartered--why, I could never have chartered them without your help.
+Who was I?  Would I have had any credit or standing with those big
+Eastern shipping firms?  Not much!  I represented myself as the
+general manager of the Blue Star Navigation Company.  And they knew
+about you--you were rated A-1 in financial circles."
+
+"You what?" yelled Cappy.  "General manager!  You infernal duffer, why
+didn't you cut the whole hog and call yourself president?"
+
+"I had my cards printed to read: Vice President and General Manager,"
+Matt replied with a twinkle.  "I didn't feel any qualms of conscience
+about cutting that much of the hog, because I knew you would make me
+vice president and general manager as soon as I got back with the
+bacon!  So I signed all the charters, 'Blue Star Navigation Company,
+by Matthew Peasley, V. P. and G.M.'--drew a raft of sight drafts on
+you also.  They'll be putting in an appearance in a day or two.  I got
+home just about two jumps ahead of them."
+
+"You're a devil!" said Cappy Ricks.  "But--I'll pay the drafts."  Matt
+laughed happily.  "You're bringing about a million and a half into the
+company--at least, if everything goes well, you will; and you've got a
+half interest in what you have brought in," Cappy continued.
+
+He touched a push button.  An instant later Mr. Skinner appeared.
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," said Cappy, "Matt has a flock of charters he
+has made for us in the East--also, a flock of recharters of the same
+boats--also, a contract of sale on the steamer Narcissus.  Make out a
+form of assignment of that contract from the Pacific Shipping Company
+to the Blue Star Navigation Company and Matt will sign it.  We'll keep
+that boat ourselves.  Then give Matt a check for the next payment due
+that man MacCandless on the Narcissus and after you've cleaned up with
+Matt, Skinner, have Hankins issue him seven hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars' worth of stock--half in the Blue Star and half in the Ricks
+Lumber & Logging Company.  Tell Hankins, also, to call a special
+meeting of the board of directors of both companies for ten o'clock
+tomorrow--and to be sure to have a quorum present.  And in the
+meantime put the Narcissus under provisional American registry."
+
+"Why, what are you going to do?" Mr. Skinner demanded wonderingly.
+
+Cappy walked tip to his general manager and affectionately placed his
+hand on Skinner's arm.
+
+"Skinner, my dear boy," he said, "we're going to elect you president
+of the lumber company and Matt is to be president of the Navigation
+Company.  I'm going to resign and be a sort of president emeritus of
+both companies and advisory director to both boards.  Matt, you might
+tell Skinner what your plans are for the Blue Star."
+
+"Well," said Matt, "I'm going to leave the president emeritus on the
+job a few months longer."
+
+"Not by a jugful!  I quit tomorrow.  Hereafter I'm just scenery.  I'm
+old and I must give way to youth.  I've had my day; I'm out of the
+running now," Cappy answered sadly.
+
+"We're going to leave the president emeritus on the job," Matt
+repeated, "while I go to Europe and pick up a couple of big British
+tramps, under the provisions of the recent Emergency Shipping Act, and
+stick 'em under the American flag.  Regardless of what the other
+fellows may do or think, the fact is we're American citizens; and
+we're going to do our duty and help establish an American mercantile
+marine.  Skinner, we'll make the Blue Star flag known on the Seven
+Seas."
+
+Cappy Ricks sprang into the air and got one thin old arm round Matt
+Peasley's neck; with the other he groped for Skinner, for there were
+tears in his fine old eyes.
+
+"What a pair of lads to have round me!" he said huskily.
+"Matt--Skinner, my boy--by the Holy Pink-toed Prophet!--we'll do it;
+not because we need the money or want it, or give a particular damn to
+hoard up a heap of it, but because it's the right thing to do.  It's
+patriotic--it's American--our activities shall enrich the world--and
+oh, it's such a bully game to play!"
+
+Mr. Skinner glanced at Cappy Ricks with the closest approach to
+downright affection he considered quite dignified to permit during
+business hours.
+
+"I notice you were going to quit a minute ago to become president
+emeritus--and now you're including yourself in the new program of
+activity," he reminded Cappy Ricks.  "I seem to remember that for the
+past few years you've been talking of the happy day when you could
+retire and learn to play golf."
+
+"Golf!"  Cappy glanced at Mr. Skinner witheringly.  "Skinner," he
+continued, "don't be an ass!  Golf is an old man's game--and I belong
+with the young fellows.  Why, don't you remember the day, three years
+ago, when we discovered we had a sailor named Matt Peasley before the
+mast in the old Retriever?  Why, ever since I've been having so much
+fun--"
+
+"And that reminds me," Matt interrupted: "We must send a new skipper
+to Aberdeen to relieve Mike Murphy in the Retriever.  He has his
+ticket for steam and I've hired him at two hundred and fifty a month
+to skipper the Narcissus.  Mike is one of the best men under the Blue
+Star; he has come up from before the mast."
+
+"The only kind I ever gave a whoop for," Cappy declared.  "In effect,
+he once told me to go chase myself."
+
+"But," Skinner persisted, "how about playing golf?"
+
+Cappy Ricks raised his eyes reverently upward.  "Please God," he said,
+"I'll die in the harness!"
+
+"Amen!" said Mr. Skinner; and Matt Peasely re-echoed the sentiment.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CAPPY RICKS ***
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