by Holman Day
XXVI ~ THE FANGS OF OLD RAZEE
A dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay, Lowlands, lowlands, a-way, my John! Yes, a dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay, My dollar and a half a day. --Old Pumping Song.
Before leaving New York Mayo made inquiries at offices of shippingbrokers and trailed Captain Zoradus Wass to his lair in the loafers'room of a towboat office. Their conference was a gloomy one; neither hadany comfort for the other. Mayo was laconic in his recital of events: hesaid that he had run away--and had come back. Of Marston and Marston'sdaughter he made no mention.
"I have been to see that fat whelp of a Fogg," stated the old mastermariner. "I ain't afraid of him. I had a good excuse; I said I wanted ajob. I didn't let on to him that I advised you to slip your cable, butI might have curried favor with him by saying so. He seemed to be prettywell satisfied because you had skipped."
"Captain Wass, that's the main thing I've come to talk over with you.Here's my ticket back home. But I feel that I ought to walk up to theUnited States marshal's office and surrender myself. And I want to askyou about the prospects of my getting bail. Can you help me?"
"I reckon if I saw you behind bars I'd do my best to get you out,son. But you steer away from here on a straight tack and mind your ownbusiness! When the United States wants you they'll come and get you--youneedn't worry!"
"But I do worry, sir! I am dodging about the streets. I expect to feela hand on my shoulder every moment. I can't endure the strain of thething! I don't want anybody to think I'm a sneak."
"As near's I can find out by nosing around a little that indictment isa secret one--even if it really was returned. And I'm half inclined tothink there wasn't any indictment! Perhaps those officers were only sentout to get you and hold you as a witness. Fogg has been doing most ofthe talking about there being an indictment. However it is, if theydon't want you just yet I wouldn't go up to a cell door, son, and hollerand pound and ask to be let in. Law has quite a way of giving a man whathe hollers for. You go away and let me do the peeking and listening foryou around these parts. I'm collecting a little line of stuff on thiswater-front. Haven't much else to do, these days!"
"I reckon my first hunch was the right one, sir!' I'll go along home. Ifyou hear anybody with a badge on inquiring for me tell him I'm fishingon the _Ethel and May_."
"That's a mean job for you, son. But I guess I'd better not say anythingabout it, seeing what I have shanghaied you into."
"It has not been your fault or mine, what has happened, sir. I am notwhining!"
"By gad! I know you ain't! But get ready to growl when the right timecomes, and keep your teeth filed! When it's our turn to bite we'llmake a bulldog grip of it!" He emphasized the vigor of that grip in hisfarewell handshake.
But Mayo did not reflect with much enthusiasm on Captain Wass'smetaphorical summons to combat.
Returning to Maquoit, the young man decided that he was more like abeaten dog slinking back with canine anxiety to nurse his wounds insecret.
His experiences had been too dreadful and too many in the last few daysto be separated and assimilated. He had been like a man stunned bya fall--paralyzed by a blow. Now the agonizing tingle of memory anddespair made his thoughts an exquisite torture. He tried to put AlmaMarston out of those thoughts. He did not dare to try to find a placefor her in the economy of his affairs. However, she and he had been downto the gates of death together, and he realized that the experiencehad had its effect on her nature; he believed that it had developed hercharacter as well. Insistently the memory of her parting words was withhim, and he knew, in spite of his brutal and furious efforts to condemnher, that love was not dead and that hope still lived.
He swung aboard the _Ethel and May_ one afternoon, after he had waitedpatiently for her arrival with her fare.
"I have come back to fish with you, Captain Candage, until my troublesare straightened out--if they ever are."
Captain Candage was silent, controlling some visible emotions.
"I have come back to be with folks who won't talk too much about thosetroubles," he added, gloomily.
"Exactly," agreed the skipper. "Nothing is ever gained by stirring uptrouble after it has been well cooked. Swing the pot back over the fire,I say, and let it simmer till it cools off of itself. I thought youwould come back."
"Why?"
"Well, I knew they had taken away your papers. Furthermore, Polly hasbeen saying that you would come back."
"And why did she think so?" asked Mayo, in milder tones.
"She didn't say why," admitted Captain Candage. "Maybe women see intothings deeper than men do."
"It seems like coming home--coming home when a man is sick and tired ofeverything in the world, sir."
"Reckon my Polly had something like that in mind. She dropped a fewhints that she hoped you'd come and get rested up from your troubles."
"And she has gone back to her work, I suppose?"
"No, she is still on her job at Maquoit, sir--calls it her real job. Sheisn't a quitter, Polly isn't. She says they need her."
"Like the song says, 'The flowers need the sunshine and the roses needthe dew,' that's how they need her," averred Oakum Otie. "Though themHue and Cry women and children can't be said to be much like roses andgeraniums! But they're more like it than they ever was before, sinceMiss Polly has taken hold of 'em. It's wonderful what a good girl can dowhen she tries, Captain Mayo!"
Resuming his life on the fishing-schooner was like slipping on a pair ofold shoes, and Mayo was grateful for that New England stoicism which hadgreeted him in such matter-of-fact fashion.
"What you want to tell me is all right and what you don't want to tellme is still better," stated Captain Candage. "Because when you ain'ttalking about it you ain't stirring it!"
So, in that fashion, he came back into the humble life of Maquoit. Therehad been no awkwardness in his meeting with Captain Candage; it had beenman to man, and they understood how to dispense with words. But Mayolooked forward to his meeting with Polly Candage without feeling thatequanimity which the father had inspired.
He felt an almost overmastering desire to confide to her his troubles ofthe heart. But he knew that he would not be able to do that. His littletemple had been so cruelly profaned. His humiliation was too great.
He was conscious that some other reason was operating to hold him backfrom explaining to her; and because he did not understand just what itwas he was ill at ease when he did come face to face with her. Hewas grateful for one circumstance--their first meeting was in the oldfish-house at Maquoit, under the hundred curious eyes of the colony. Hehad rowed ashore in his dory and went to seek her in the midst ofher activities. She put out both her hands and greeted him with frankpleasure and seemed to understand his constraint, to anticipate his ownthoughts, to respect his reticence.
"I'm glad you have come back to wait till all your troubles are settled.The most consoling friends are those who know and who sympathize and whokeep still! Now come with me and listen to the children and see whatthe women are doing. You will be proud and glad because you spoke up forthem that day when we went over to Hue and Cry."
After that there was no constraint between them; they kept their ownaffairs hidden from each other. The autumn passed and the long, chillevenings came, and when the fishing-schooner was in port at Maquoit,between trips, Mayo and the girl spent comfortable hours together,playing at cards under the widow's red-shaded lamp and under the widow'sapproving eyes.
"No, they ain't courting, either," she informed the pestering neighbors."Do you suppose I have been twice married and twice a widder not to knowcourting when I see it? It's 'Boyd this' and 'Polly that,' to be sure,the whole continyal time; but she is engaged to somebody else, becauseshe has been wearing an engagement ring that has come to her since shehas been here. She showed it to me, and she showed it to him! And as forhim, everybody 'longcoast knows how dead gone on him that millionairegirl is! Now everybody mind their own business!"
As
the days passed the widow's counsel seemed to apply to all theaffairs of Maquoit; folks went at their business in good earnest.
The winter wind nipped, the wharf piles were sheathed with ice, and onlyhardy men were abroad on the waterfront of the coast city, but the crewof the _Ethel and May_ were unusually cheerful that day.
The schooner had stayed on Cashes Banks and had ridden out a gale thathad driven other fishermen to shelter. Then in the first lull she hadsent her dories over the rail and had put down her trawls for a set,and a rousing set it was! It seemed as if the cod, hake, and haddock hadbeen waiting for that gale to stop so that they might hunt for baitedhooks and have a feast. Nearly every ganging-line had its prize. The bowpulley in each dory fairly chuckled with delight as the trawl line waspulled over it. Every three feet was a ganging-line. Each dory strungout a mile of trawl. And when the dories returned to the schooner anddumped the catch into the hold the little craft fairly wallowed underher load.
They caught the market bare; the gale had blown for nearly a week.Fish-houses bid spiritedly against one another, and when at last a tradewas made and the schooner's crew began to pitchfork the fish into thewinch buckets, and the buckets rose creaking out over the rail, the twocaptains went into the office of the fish-house to figure some mightygratifying profits.
"Nothing like luck in the fishing game, gents," observed the manager.
"Well, grit counts for something," stated Captain Candage. "We've got acrew that ain't afraid of a little weather."
"If that's the case, there may be something for you off-coast about nowthat's better than the fishing game."
"What's that?" asked the old skipper.
"Wrecking. Seen the morning papers?"
"We've had something to do besides fool with papers."
"That new Bee line steamer, _Conomo_, has been piled up on Razee Reef."
"One time--this last time--she hugged too close!" snapped the young man.The others bent an inquiring gaze on him. But he did not explain. Histhoughts were busy with the events of that day when the Bee line steamerstarted his troubles with Marston.
"Paper says she's considered a total loss," went on the manager. "Ifthat's so, and the underwriters give her up, there ought to be some finepicking for men with grit. The board of survey went out to her on atug this morning." He gave them their check, and they went aboard theirschooner.
The affair of the _Conomo_ was not mentioned between them until theywere at sea on their way to the eastward again. The piece of news didnot interest Mayo at first, except as a marine disaster that had nobearing on his own affairs.
Captain Candage was stumping the quarter-deck, puffing at his short,black pipe. "I don'no' as you feel anyways as I do about it, CaptainMayo, but it ain't going to be no great outset to us if we make a legout to Razee and see what's going on there," he suggested.
"I have no objections," returned Mayo. "But the way things are managednowadays in case of wrecks, I don't see much prospect of our getting inon the thing in any way."
"Mebbe not; but in case they're going to abandon her there'll be somegrabbing, and we might as well grab with the rest of 'em."
"If they can't get her off some junk concern will gamble on her. Butwe'll make an excursion of it to see the sights, sir. We can afford alittle trip after what we pulled down to-day."
There was no hope of reaching the wreck before nightfall, so they joggedcomfortably in the light westerly that had succeeded the gale.
Captain Candage took the first watch after the second dog-watch, andat two bells, or nine o'clock, in the evening, Mayo awoke and heard himgive orders to "pinch her." He heard the sails flap, and knew that themen were shortening in readiness to lay to. He slipped on his outerclothing and went on deck.
"We're here," stated the old skipper, "and it looks like some othermoskeeters had got here ahead of us, ready to stick in their littlebills when they get a chance."
It was a clear night, brilliant with stars. In contrast with thetwinkling and pure lights of the heavens, there were dim reds and greensand yellow-white lights on the surface of the ocean. These lights rockedand oscillated and tossed as the giant surges swept past.
"I make out half a dozen sail--little fellers--and two tugs," saidCaptain Candage. "But get your eye on the main squeeze!"
Mayo looked in the direction of the extended mittened hand.
"Some iceberg, hey?" commented the skipper.
A short half-mile away, a veritable ghost ship, loomed the wrecked_Conomo_. Spray had beaten over her and had congealed until she seemedlike a mass of ice that had been molded into the shape of a ship. Shegleamed, a spectral figure, under the starry heavens.
A single red light, a baleful blob of color, showed from her mainrigging.
They surveyed her for some time.
"I should say she was spoke for," was Captain Candage's opinion. "It'shigh tide now, and a spring tide at that, and them tugs is just loafingout there--ain't making a move to start her. We can tell more about theprospect in the morning."
Then the two captains turned in, for the _Ethel and May_ lay to docilelywith a single helmsman at the wheel.
The crisp light of morning did not reveal anything especially new orimportant. There were half a dozen small schooners, fishermen, loafingunder shortened canvas in the vicinity of the wreck. One of the tugsdeparted shoreward after a time.
Mayo had assured himself, through the schooner's telescope, that theremaining tug was named _Seba J. Ransom_.
"The captain of that fellow went mate with me on a fishing-steameronce," he informed Captain Candage. "Jockey me down in reaching distanceand I'll go aboard him in a dory. He may have some news."
Captain Dodge was immensely pleased to see his old chum, and called himup into the pilot-house and gave him a cigar.
"It's only a loafing job," he said. "I've got to stand by and take offher captain and crew in case of rough weather or anything breaks loosemore'n what's already busted. They are still hanging by her so as todeliver her to the buyer."
"Buyer?"
"Yep! To whatever junkman is fool enough to bid her in. She's stuckfast. Underwriters have gone back on that tug, and are going to auctionher. I'm here to help keep off pirates and take her men ashore after shehas been handed over. You a pirate, Mayo?" he asked, with a grin.
"I'm almost anything nowadays, if there's a dollar to be made,"returned the young man.
The _Ransom's_ captain gave him a wink. "I'm on to what happened onboard the _Olenia_" he confided. "Feller who was in the crew told me.You're good enough for old Marston's girl. Why haven't you gone up toNew York and taken--"
"Cut that conversation, Dodge," barked Mayo, his face hard and his jawjutting threateningly. "Good day!" added the young man, slamming thepilot-house door behind him.
His schooner, standing off and on, picked him up.
"There's no use hanging around here," he informed the old skipper."They're going to junk her, if they can find anybody fool enough to bid.She'll be guarded till after the auction."
Therefore the _Ethel and May_ shook out all her canvas and headed fulland by for Maquoit to secure her fresh supply of bait.
"It's a shame," mourned Captain Candage, staring over the taffrail atthe ice-sheathed steamer. "'Most new, and cost two hundred and fiftythousand dollars to build, if I remember right what the paper said whenshe was launched."
"If she was making money they'll have another one in her place," saidMayo.
"Don'no' about that, sir. The Bee line wasn't none too strongfinancially, I'm told--a lot of little fellers who put in what theycould scrape and borrowed the rest. Depends on insurance and theircourage what they do after this." He offered another observation afterhe had tamped down a load in his black pipe. "Men will do 'most anythingfor money--enough money."
"Seems as if I'd heard that statement before," was Mayo's curtrejoinder.
"Oh, I know it ain't in any ways new. But the more I think over what hashappened to the _Conomo_, the pickeder seems the point to th
at remark.And whilst I was standing off and on, waiting for you, I run closeenough to that steamer to make out a few faces aboard her."
Mayo glanced at him without comment.
"F'r instance, I saw Art Simpson. You know him, don't you?"
"He was captain of Mr. Marston's yacht once."
"Why did he leave her?"
"I heard he had been discharged. That was what the broker said when hehired me."
"Yes, that's what Simpson said. He made a business of going around andswearing about it. Seemed to want to have everybody 'longcoast hear himswear about it. When I see a man make too much of a business of swearingabout another man I get suspicious. After Art Simpson worked his cardsso as to get the job of second officer on board the new _Conomo_ Igot _more_ suspicious. Now that I have seen how that steamer hasbeen plunked fair and square on Razee, I'm _almighty_ suspicious.I'm suspicious enough to believe that she banged during Art Simpson'swatch."
"What are you driving at, Captain Candage? Are you hinting that anybodywould plant a man for a job of that kind?"
"Exactly what I'm hinting," drawled the skipper.
"But putting a steamer on the rocks at this time of year!"
"No passengers--and plenty of life-boats for the crew, sir. I havebeen hearing a lot of talk about steamboat conditions since I have beencarrying in fish."
"I've found out a little something in that line myself," admitted Mayo.
"There's one thing to be said about Blackbeard and Cap'n Teach and oldCap Kidd--they went out on the sea and tended to their own pirating;they didn't stay behind a desk and send out understrappers."
Mayo, in spite of his bitter memories of Julius Mar-ston's attitude,felt impelled to palliate in some degree the apparent enormities of thesteamboat magnates.
"I don't believe the big fellows know all that's done, Captain Candage.As responsible parties they wouldn't dare to have those things done. Theunderstrappers, as you say, are anxious to make good and to earn theirmoney, and when the word is passed on down to 'em they go at the jobrecklessly. I think it will be pretty hard to fix anything on the realprincipals. That's why I am out in the cold with my hands tied, justnow."
"I wish we were going to get into the _Conomo_ matter a little, so thatwe could do some first-hand scouting. It looks to me like the rankestjob to date, and it may be the opening for a general overhauling. Whendeviltry gets to running too hard it generally stubs its toes, sir."Captain Candage found a responsive gleam in Mayo's eyes and he went on."Of course, I didn't hear the talk, nor see the money pass, nor I wa'n'tin the pilot-house when Art Simpson shut his eyes and let her slam. Buthaving been a sailorman all my life, I smell nasty weather a long waysoff. That steamer was wrecked a-purpose, and she was wrecked at a timeo' year when she can't be salvaged. You don't have to advise the devilhow to build a bonfire."
Mayo did not offer any comment. He seemed to be much occupied by histhoughts.
Two days later a newspaper came into Mayo's hands at Maquoit, andhe read that the wrecked steamer had been put up at auction by theunderwriters. It was plain that the bidders had shared the insurancefolks' general feeling of pessimism--she had been knocked down for twothousand five hundred dollars. The newspapers explained that only thisridiculous sum had been realized because experts had decided that inthe first blow the steamer would slip off the ledges on which she wasimpaled and would go down like a plummet in the deep water from whichold Razee cropped. Even the most reckless of gambling junkmen could notbe expected to dare much of an investment in such a peek-a-boo game asthat.
"But I wonder what was the matter with the expert who predicted that,"mused Mayo. "He doesn't know the old jaw teeth of Razee Reef as well asI do."
When the _Ethel and May_ set forth from Maquoit on her next trip toCashes Banks, Mayo suggested--and he was a bit shamefaced when he didso--that they might as well go out of their way a little and see whatthe junkers were doing at Razee.
Captain Candage eyed his associate with rather quizzical expression."Great minds travel, et cetry!" he chuckled. "I was just going to saythat same thing to you. On your mind a little, is it?"
"Yes, and only a little. Of course, there can't be anything in it forus. Those junkers will stick to her till she ducks for deep water. ButI've been wondering why they think she's going to duck. I seined aroundRazee for a while, and the old chap has teeth like a hyena--regularfangs."
"Maybe they took Art Simpson's say-so," remarked the old man, wrinklinghis nose. "Art would be very encouraging about the prospects of savingher--that is to say, he would be so in case losing that steamer hasturned his brain."
"Guess there wasn't very much interest by the underwriters," suggestedMayo. "They weren't stuck very hard, so I've found out. She was mostlyowned in sixty-fourths, and with marine risks up to where they are,small owners don't insure. It's a wicked thing all through, Candage!That great, new steamer piled up there by somebody's devilishness! Ibelieve as you do about the affair! I've been to sea so long that a boatmeans something to me besides iron and wood. There's something about'em--something--"
"Almost human," put in the old man. "I sorrowed over the _Polly_, butI didn't feel as bad as if she'd been new. It was sort of like when oldfolks die of natural causes--you know they have lived about as longas they can. It's sorrowful to have 'em go, but you have to feelreconciled. But I know just how it is with you in the case of thatsteamer, for I'm a sailor like you. It's just like getting a fine boythrough college, seeing him start out full of life, and courage, andhopes, and prospects, and then seeing him drop dead at your feet."
There was a quaver in the old man's tones. But Mayo, who knew the soulsof mariners, understood. Under their hard shells there is imaginationthat has been nurtured in long, long thoughts. In the calms understarlit skies, in the black darkness when tossing surges swing beneaththe keel, in the glimmering vistas of sun-lighted seas, sailors ponderwhile their more stolid brothers on land allow their souls to doze.
"You are right, Captain Candage. That's why I almost hate to go out tothe _Conomo_. Those infernal ghouls of junkmen will be tearing her intobits instead of trying to put the breath of life back into her."
The helpless steamer seemed more lonely than when they had visited herbefore. The mosquito fleet that had surrounded her, hoping for somestray pickings, had dispersed. A tug and a couple of lighters were stuckagainst her icy sides, and, like leeches, were sucking from her whatthey could. They were prosecuting their work industriously, for thesea was calm in one of those lulls between storms, a wintry truce thatAtlantic coastwise toilers understand and depend on.
Mayo, his curiosity prompting him, determined to go on board one of thelighters and discover to what extremes the junk jackals were proceeding.
Two of his dorymen ferried him after the schooner had been hove to nearthe wreck.
"What's your business?" inquired a man who was bundled in a fur coat andseemed to be bossing operations.
"Nothing much," confessed the young man from his dory, which was tossingalongside the lighter. "I'm only a fisherman."
The swinging cranes of the lighters, winches purring, the littlelifting-engines puffing in breathless staccato, were hoisting anddropping cargo--potatoes in sacks, and huge rolls of print paper. Mayowas a bit astonished to note that they were not stripping the steamer;not even her anchors and chains had been disturbed.
"Fend off!" commanded the boss.
Captain Dodge dropped one of the windows of his pilot-house and leanedon his elbows, thrusting his head out. The tug _Seba J. Ransom_ wasstill on the job. She was tied up alongside the wreck, chafing herfenders against the ice-sheathed hull.
"Hello, Captain Mayo!" he called, a welcoming grin splitting hisfeatures. "Come aboard and have a cigar, and this time I'll keep theconversation on fish-scales and gurry-butts."
The man in the fur coat glanced from one to the other, and was promptlyplacated. "Oh, this is a friend of yours, is he, Captain Dodge?"
"You bet he is. He's been my boss before now."
>
"If that's the case make yourself at home anywhere. But you know whatsome of these fellows alongcoast who call themselves fishermen will doaround a wreck when your back is turned!"
Mayo nodded amicably.
"Step on board," invited the boss.
"I'm all right here in the dory, and I'm out from underfoot, sir. We'regoing along to the fishing-grounds in a jiffy. I'm only satisfyinga sailor's curiosity. Wondered what you intended to do with thisproposition."
"We're only grabbing what's handy just now. Some of the cargo forward isabove water. I'm in on this thing in a sort of queer way myself." Thiskeen-eyed young man who had been so heartily indorsed by the tugboatskipper afforded the man in the fur coat an opportunity for a littleconversation about himself. "I'm the outside man for Todd & Simonton, ofBoston, and bought on the jump after I'd swapped a wire or so with thehouse. Happened into that auction, and bought blind. I believe in agamble myself. Then somebody wired to the concern that they had beenstuck good and fine, and they gave me a sizzler of a call-down in anight message. A man can sit at desk in Boston and think up a whole lotof things that ain't so. Well, I've flown out here with what equipmentI could scrape up in a hurry, and you can see what I'm doing! There'senough in sight in the way of loose cargo to square me with the concern.But, blast the luck! If Jake Simonton had a little grit and would backme I believe we'd make a killing."
"Of course, it all depends on how she's resting and what will happenwhen the next blow comes," said Mayo. "Have you been below?"
"I'm a hustler on a dicker, and a hellion on junk," snapped the boss."I'm no sailor, prophet, or marine architect. I simply know that she'sfull of water aft and has got something serious the matter with herinnards. I'm pulling enough out to make Simonton sorry he sassed me in anight message. Only he will never let on that he's sorry. He never letsloose any boomerangs that will scale around and come back and hit him.He wants to be in a position to rasp me the next time I make a mistakein a gamble."
"All the crew gone ashore--the Bee line men?"
"Sure--bag and baggage. We own her as she stands. That second officerhad 'em shivering every time a wave slapped her. I was glad when he gotaway. He pretty nigh stampeded _my_ men. Said she was liable to slideany minute."
The drawling voice of Captain Dodge broke in above them. "Here comesthe tug _Resolute_" he stated. "Mebbe it's another one of them nightmessages from your concern, Titus. May want you to put what you cancarry of her in a paper bag and bring it to Boston."
"You never can tell what they're going to do in Boston," growled theoutside man. "I get discouraged, sometimes, trying to be enterprising."
He began to pace, looking worried, and did not reply to severalquestions that Mayo put to him. So the young man accepted CaptainDodge's invitation and climbed to the tugboat's pilot-house. He had avery human hankering to know what the coming of that tug from the mainsignified, and decided to hang around a little while longer, even at therisk of making Captain Candage impatient.
The _Resolute_ brought a telegram, and the man in the fur coat slappedit open, took in its gist at one glance, and began to swear with greatgusto.
He climbed into the _Ransom's_ pilot-house, with the air of a manseeking comfort from friends, and fanned the sheet of paper wrathfully.
"Orders to resell. Get out from under. Take what I can get. Don't wantthe gamble. And here I have cleaned a good profit already."
"Why don't you fire back a message advising 'em to hold on?" askedCaptain Dodge.
"And have a gale come up in a few hours and knock her off'n this rock?That's what would happen. It would be just my luck. I'm only a hiredman, gents. If my firm won't gamble, it ain't up to me. If I disobeyorders and hold on, I'll be scared to death the first time the windbegins to blow. There's no use in ruining a fine set of nerves for afirm that won't appreciate the sacrifice, and I need nerve to keep onworking for 'em. I say it ain't up to me. Me for shore as soon as Iload those lighters. Every dollar I get by reselling is velvet, so let'ergo!"
"What do they tell you to do about price?" ventured Mayo.
"Take the first offer--and hurry about it. They seem to have an ideathat this steamer is standing on her head on the point of a needle, andthat only a blind man will buy her."
He went back to his crew, much disgusted, ordered the freshly arrivedtug to wait for a tow, and spurred laggard toilers with sharp profanity.
"Somebody has been scaring his concern," suggested Mayo, left alone withCaptain Dodge.
"Perhaps so--but it may be good business to get scared, provided theycan unload this onto somebody else for a little ready cash. This spellof weather can't last much longer. Look at that bank to s'uthard. Idon't know just what is under her in the way of ledges--never knew muchabout old Razee. But my prediction is, she'll break in two as soon asthe waves give her any motion."
It was on the tip of Mayo's tongue to argue the matter with the tugboatman, but he took second thought and shut his mouth.
"You're probably right," he admitted. "I'd better be moving. I don'tsee any fish jumping aboard our schooner. We've got to go and catch 'em.Good-by, Dodge."
When his associate came in over the rail of the _Ethel and May_ CaptainCandage, from force of habit, having picked up his men, gave orders tolet her off into the wind.
"Hold her all-aback!" commanded Mayo. "Excuse me, Captain Candage, fora cross-order, but I've got a bit of news I want you to hear before weleave. The junk crowd has got cold feet and are going to sell as shestands, as soon as they get cargoes for those lighters."
"Well, she does lay in a bad way, and weather is making," said theskipper, fiddling his forefinger under his nose dubiously.
"They haven't even skimmed the cream off her--probably will get all hercargo that's worth saving and some loose stuff in the rigging line. Bygad! what a chance for a gamble!"
"It might be for a feller who had so much money he could kiss a sliceof it good-by in case the Atlantic Ocean showed aces," said the old man,revealing a sailor's familiarity with a popular game.
"There is such a thing as being desperate enough to stake your wholebundle," declared Mayo. "Captain, I'm young, and I suppose I have gota young man's folly. I can't expect you to feel the way I feel about agamble."
"I may look old, but I haven't gone to seed yet," grumbled the skipper."What are you trying to get through you?"
"That fat man on that lighter has a telegram in his pocket from hisfolks in Boston, ordering him to take the first offer that is made forthe _Conomo_ as she stands. I'm fool enough to be willing to put inevery dollar I've got, and take a chance."
Captain Candage stared at his associate for a time, and then walked tothe rail and took a long look at the steamer. "I never heard of a fellerever getting specially rich in the fishing game," he remarked.
Mayo, wild thoughts urging him to desperate ventures, snapped outcorroboration of that dictum..
"And I've known a lot of fellers to go broke in the wrecking game,"pursued Captain Candage. "How much have you got?" That question cameunexpectedly.
"I've got rising six hundred dollars." He was carrying his little hoardin his pocket, for a man operating from the hamlet of Maquoit must needsbe his own banker.
"I've got rising six hundred in my own pocket," said the skipper. "Thatfat man may have orders to take the first offer that's made, but we'vegot to make him one that's big enough so that he won't kick us overboardand then go hunt up a buyer on the main."
The two Hue and Cry fishermen who had ferried the young man were nestingtheir dory on top of other dories, and just forward of the house, andwere within hearing. Neither captain noted with what interest these menwere listening, exchanging glances with the man at the wheel.
"And after we waggle our wad under his nose--and less than a thousandwill be an insult, so I figger--what have we got left to operate with?It won't do us any good to sail round that steamer for the rest of thewinter and admire her. What was you thinking, Mayo, of trying to workhim for a snap bargain, now th
at he's here on the spot and anxious tosell, and then grabbing off a little quick profit by peddling her tosomebody else?"
"No, sir!" cried the young man, with decision. "I've got my own goodreasons for wanting to make this job the whole hog or not a bristle! Iwon't go into it on any other plan."
"Well, we'll be into something, all right, after we invest ourmoney--the whole lump. We'll most likely be in a scrape, not a dollarleft to hire men or buy wrecking outfit."
The two men finished lashing the dories and went forward.
"It's a wild scheme, and I'm a fool to be thinking about it, CaptainCandage. But wild schemes appeal to me just now. I can make some moremoney by working hard and saving it, a few dollars at a time, but Inever expect to see another chance like this. Oh yes, I see that bank inthe south!" His eyes followed the skipper's gloomy stare. "By to-morrowat this time she may be forty fathoms under. But here's the way I feel."He pulled out his wallet and slapped it down on the roof of the house."All on the turn of one card! And there comes the blow that will turnit!" He pointed south into the slaty clouds.
Captain Candage paused in his patrol of the quarterdeck and gazed downon the wallet. Then he began to tug at his own. "I'm no dead one, evenif my hair is gray," he grumbled.
The two captains looked at the two wallets, and then at each other. Thenext moment their attention was fully taken up by another matter. Theircrew of fifteen men came marching aft and lined up forward of the house.A spokesman stepped out.
"Excuse us, captings, for meddling into something that p'raps ain'tnone of our business. We ain't meaning to peek nor pry, but some ofus couldn't help overhearing. We've cleaned out our pockets. Here itis--three hundred and sixty-eight dollars and thirty-seven cents. Willyou let me step onto the quarter-deck and lay it down 'side of themwallets?" He accepted their amazed silence as consent, and made hisdeposit solemnly.
"But this is all a gamble, and a mighty uncertain one," protested Mayo.
"We 'ain't never had no chance to be sports before in all our lives,"pleaded the man. "We wouldn't have had that money if you two heroeshadn't give us the chance you have. We wa'n't more'n half men before.Now we can hold up our heads. You'll make us feel mighty mean, as if wewasn't fit to be along with you, if you won't let us in."
"You bet you can come in, boys!" shouted Captain Candage. "I know howyou feel."
"And another thing," went on the spokesman. "We 'ain't had much time totalk this over; we rushed aft here as soon as we heard and had cleanedout our pockets. But we've said enough to each other so that we cantell you that all of us will turn to on that wreck with you and work fornothing till--till--well, whatever happens. Don't want wages! Don't needpromises! And if she sinks, we'll sing a song and go back to fishingagain."
The man at the wheel let go the spokes and came forward and depositeda handful of money beside the rest. "There's mine. I wisht it was amillion; it would go just as free."
"Boys, I'd make a speech to you--but my throat is too full," chokedMayo. "I know better, now, why something called me over to Hue andCry last summer. Hard over with that wheel! Jockey her down toward thewreck!"
When they were within hailing distance of the lighter Mayo raised hismegaphone. "Will you take fifteen hundred dollars--cash--now--for thatwreck, as you leave her when you've loaded those lighters?" he shouted.
There was a long period of silence. Then the man in the fur coatreplied, through his hollowed hands: "Yes--and blast the fools in Bostonwho are making me sell!"