let us alone I'd 'a' got--and Archie Gillis too--good
and rich."

"Rich, Alec? You rich?"

"Well, maybe not quite rich, for that, o' course, would call for saving,
but certainly I'd had a roll to spend before I was done--if only they'd
let us alone. But would they? Man, the meddlers they were!--the
brass-buttoned, steam-winched buttinskis!"

"But if that is their business, Alec?"

"M-m--maybe. But Russians, English, Japs--yes, an' American cutters and
gunboats before they were done--you ought to seen them!"

Alec paused, but only for a quick breath. "We had the finest little
scheme of sealing till they took to hunting us. Up and down the length
and breadth of the sealing-grounds they'd up and chase us whenever
they'd get word of us--from the Japan coast back by way of the
Aleutians--clear down, one time, a pair of 'em, till we had to put in
behind Vancouver Island and hide the _Hattie_ behind a lot o' screen
boughs."

Alec paused; this time for a longer, an almost reflective, breath. "That
being their business, p'r'aps they were all right; but ain't it a fine
thing when a gang wants to go seal-hunting that a lot o' gover'ment
people must specify where they can kill 'em, and when?--and they
swimmin' the wide ocean as the Lord intended! And our little vessel--the
_Hattie Rennish_ when she used to go fresh halibutin' out o'
here--remember her?"

There were several who heartily remembered the fast and able _Hattie_.

Presently, letting the elevated front legs of his chair drop to the
floor, Alec rested one forearm on the table and went on to tell of how
at last they got the _Hattie Rennish_.

"'Twas a Californian man named Trumbull bought the _Hattie_ when she was
fresh halibutin' out o' Gloucester. A good sort of a man, and 'twas him
got me, with Archie Gillis for mate, to bring her 'round to Frisco.

"But the time I'm going to speak of, the _Hattie_--painted green she
was, and called the _Pioneer_--was layin' into Seattle, when a chap
comes aboard with a letter from Trumbull to me explaining that certain
aspects of the sealing business 'd been taking on a serious look to him
lately and he'd sold the _Hattie_, and the party who'd bought her,
letter herewith, might want to do business with me.

"The looks of the new owner didn't warm me toward him in the start-off.
Looks, of course, ain't everything, but when you don't know much about a
man you got to go a lot by his looks. Yes, you sure have. And I'd seen
hi