to provide a berth for you, my boy, as second mate on the
dirtiest, leakiest little bumboat you ever saw--our steam schooner
Gualala. She's a nautical disgrace and carries three hundred thousand
feet of lumber--runs into the dogholes on the Mendocino Coast and takes
in cargo on a trolley running from the top of the cliff to the masthead.
It'll be your job to get out in a small boat to pick up the moorings;
and that'll be no picnic in the wintertime, because you lie just outside
the edge of the breakers. But you'll learn how to pick up moorings,
Matt, and you'll learn how to turn a steamer round on her heels also."

"I never did that kind of work before," Matt protested. "I stand a good
chance of getting drowned, don't I?"

"Of course! But better men than you do it; so don't kick. In the spring
I'll shift you to a larger boat; but I want you to have one winter along
the Mendocino Coast. It'll about break your heart, but it will do you
an awful lot of good, Matt. When you finish in the Gualala, you'll go
in the Florence Ricks and run from Grays Harbor to San Pedro. Then, when
you get your first mate's license, I'll put you in our Tillicum, where
you'll learn how to handle a big vessel; and by the time you get your
master's license for steam you'll be ready to start for Philadelphia
to bring out the finest freighter on this Coast. How does that prospect
strike you?"

Matt's eyes glowed. He forgot the two years' apprenticeship and thought
only of the prize Cappy was dangling before him.

"If faithful service will be a guaranty of my appreciation--" he began;
but Cappy interrupted.

"Nonsense! Not another peep out of you. You'd better take a little rest
now for a couple of weeks and get your stomach in order after all that
creosote. Meantime, if you should need any money, Skinner will fix you
up."

"I'll not need any, thank you. I saved sixteen hundred dollars while I
was in the Retriever--"

"Fine! Good boy!" exclaimed Cappy, delighted beyond measure at this
proof of Matt's Yankee thrift and sobriety. "But don't save it, Matt.
Invest it. Put it in a mortgage for three years. I know a captain now
that wants to borrow a thousand dollars at eight per cent. to buy an
interest in one of our vessels. You shall loan it to him, Matt, and
he'll secure you with the insurance. Perfectly safe. Guarantee it
myself. Bring your thousand dollars round in the morning, Matt.
Understand? No fooling now! Make your money work for you.