schooners and a hundred and twenty-five in the big vessels
running foreign--and there he sticks. In steam schooners a good man can
command two hundred dollars a month, with a chance for promotion into a
big freighter, for the reason that in steam one has more opportunity to
show the stuff that's in one."

"How far are you going?" Matt demanded.

"I'm bound for San Francisco too."

"Good!" Matt replied, for, like most boys, he was a gregarious animal,
and Mr. Hayes seemed to be a pleasant, affable gentleman. "I suppose you
know most of the steam vessels on this coast?" he continued, anxious
to turn the conversation into channels that might be productive of
information valuable to him in his new line of endeavor.

Mr. Hayes nodded. "I have to," he said, "if I'm to do any business
negotiating charters; in fact, I'm bound to San Francisco now to charter
two steamers."

"Freight or passenger?"

"Freight. There's nothing for a broker in a passenger vessel. I'm
scouting for two boats for the Mannheim people. You've heard of them, of
course. They own tremendous copper mines in Alaska, but they can't seem
to get the right kind of flux to smelt their ore up there; so they're
going to freight it down to their smelter in Tacoma."

"I see. But how do you work the game to pay your office rent?"

"Why, that's very simple, Mr. Peasley. Their traffic manager merely
calls me up and tells me to find two ore freighters for him. He doesn't
know where to look for them, but he knows I do, and that it will not
cost him anything to engage me to find them for him. Well, I locate the
vessels and when I come to terms with the owners, and those terms are
satisfactory to my clients, I close the charter and the vessel owners
pay me a commission of two and a half per cent. on all the freight money
earned under the charter. A shipowner generally is glad to pay a broker
a commission for digging him up business for his ships--particularly
when freights are dull."

Matt Peasley nodded his comprehension and did some quick mental
arithmetic.

"Why, you'll make a nice little fee on those ore boats," he said. "I
suppose it's a time charter."

"Four years," Mr. Hayes replied, and smiled fatly at the thought of his
income. "Of course I'd make a larger commission if the freight rate was
figured on a tonnage basis; but on long charters, like these I mention,
the ships are rented at a flat rate a day or month. Say, for instance,
I negotiate these ch