were expected to draw alongside with orders for
them from some mysterious central clearing house. Possibly there were
many more similar packages down below, for the sloop was evidently
heavily laden.

Now and then the voluble member of the firm would let out a crisp
exclamation as though those keen eyes of his had run across some visible
sign of the recent rough-house disagreement that tickled him more or
less.

"We sure broke in on a sweet little party all right, Jack," he observed,
at one time with a chuckle, "see, here's a broken bottle that I guess
must a' been smashed on some poor guy's bean and from the blood spots
hereabout he had a plenty, but still he managed to skip out when the
grand march started. An' looky what I found--a coat that's tore into
shreds. Gee whiz! but that was some hot tamale scrap, believe me. I'd
give somethin' for a chance to look in on the round."

Jack was apparently puzzling his own head over something that did not
hit him as so very humorous.

"Yes," he told Perk, with a grimace, "we've made a bully capture all
right, partner, but when you come to think twice it may be we've got a
white elephant on our hands after all."

"Huh! what d'ye mean by sayin' that, old pal?" questioned the other, who
apparently saw nothing in the affair calculated to create any tendency
toward dismay in his mind. "You got me in a tail spin, partner--lift the
lid, won't you, an' gimme a look in?"

"Well, we've got the rum-boat okay, haven't we?" demanded Jack.

"Looks thataways, I guess," Perk admitted.

"Just so, and what d'ye reckon we're going to do with it?" continued the
head pilot, hitting straight from the shoulder as usual.

"Why--er--ginger pop! that's so, old hoss, _what?_ Mebbe now the
shoe's on the other foot, an' it's the blamed sloop that's got us held
up. Would it be proper to set the bally boat afire and see all this hot
stuff go up in flames? or we might knock a hole in the bottom, an' sink
her right where she stands, though that might get us in Dutch with our
people, since the rum-runners could come around an' salvage this case
stuff again. Only way to settle the puzzle'd be for us to have a bargain
day sale, opening case after case, knockin' the neck off each and every
bottle and makin' all the fish in this corner o' the gulf dizzy with a
mixture o' rum an' seawater."

Jack laughed at hearing all this wild stuff come from the bewildered
Perk.

"Strikes me I'm not going to get muc