t, and
as Dickie Lang had said and he was beginning to find out, boats were
very much like people.

For some time Bronson instructed him in the proper operation of the
craft. Then he slowed down and threw up the hood, disclosing two
complete multi-cylindered motors.

"Everything's double," he explained. "You can cut it all in or halve it
as you please. And if anything goes wrong with one motor you're never
hung up. You can always limp in at least."

As they settled down to a good running speed, the talk gradually drifted
to Mascola.

"The way things are going now," Bronson observed, "it won't be long
before we're building a new boat for Mascola."

"What do you mean by that? Has he seen this one?"

The boatman shook his head.

"You needn't be afraid of that," he answered. "What I meant was that
Mascola is hammering the _Fuor d'Italia_ to pieces with his trips to
Diablo in that rough water."

"Does Mascola go often to Diablo?" Gregory questioned quickly.

Bronson shrugged his shoulders non-committally.

"Can't say," he answered. "Don't know how often he goes out there. But I
do know that he brags that his boat can make it in two hours and a half.
Diablo's a bad place for the _Fuor d'Italia_. She's built too light to
stand the gaff."

The ride to Port Angeles proved all too short. Bronson was communicative
in the extreme and regaled him of many evidences of Mascola's
prosperity, chief among which was the Italian's recent order to a firm
of Norwegian boat-builders at Port Angeles of twenty large fishing
launches of the most improved pattern. These boats, according to
Bronson, were of sufficient tonnage and fuel capacity to enable them to
cruise far down into Mexican waters.

As they rounded the light-house point and made for the breakwater, the
wind increased, driving a choppy sea before it. Then it was that the
_Richard_ rose to the occasion and demonstrated her natural ability to
cope with a head-on sea.

Arriving at the municipal docks, Gregory promised to call for the boat
on the day following and hurried away to attend to his business. He had
a real boat all right. Just what he wanted. Now all that remained to be
done was to see the jobbers and get a few orders which he could convert
into cash to pay for the _Richard_.

With elastic step he set out for the wholesale district imbued with a
spirit of rosy optimism. The Western was first on his list. The chances
were he would have to go no farther. A sh