proposition to buy her boats. Fishing was no business for a girl anyway.

He glanced at the schedule of dates arranged by Lang and his father for
making the payments and turned to the calendar. One of them was already
past due. Five hundred dollars should have been paid the week before.

So intent was Gregory upon his study of the contract that he failed to
hear the opening of the outer office door. His first intimation of the
presence of a visitor came with a sharp knock upon his half-open door.

"Come in," he called.

A wind-bronzed fisherman stood upon the threshold, dangling a red cap in
his hand. He bowed gracefully and smiled.

"You are Mr. Gregory?"

Gregory nodded, trying to remember where he had seen the man before.
Suddenly he remembered. It was on the day his father's body had been
brought in. Near the alien wharf a man had jostled against him. A man
with a bright red cap, smoking a cigarette.

"I am Mascola."

The visitor spoke the words slowly as if anxious that none of the
importance of the introduction might be lost or passed over lightly.

Gregory looked Mascola over carefully. The man's carelessness and
seeming irreverence on that never-to-be-forgotten day might not have
been intentional. He must not allow his prejudice to interfere with his
judgment. That was not business. He resolved to hear what the man had to
say.

"What do you want?" he asked bluntly.

Mascola walked unbidden to a chair and seated himself before replying:
"You will want fish before long, Mr. Gregory. I would like to contract
for my men to get them for you."

Gregory was nettled by Mascola's calm assurance. He had a mind to send
him packing. Blair, he remembered, had evidently had but little use for
the Italian. But Blair too might have been prejudiced. It was business
perhaps to hear the man's proposal.

"What is your proposition?" he asked, hoping Mascola would be brief.

In this he was not disappointed. Mascola plunged his hand into the
pocket of his vest and drew forth a paper which he placed in Gregory's
hand.

Gregory ran his eye hastily over the typewritten sheet which contained
the memorandum of four numbered clauses. They were briefly worded and to
the point:

1. The fishermen to furnish albacore, tuna and sardines
at the same price paid by the Golden Rule Cannery.

2. The cannery to assume complete liability for all
boats and equipment used by the fishermen in providing
fish for i