was his habit when his gigantic brain grappled with a
problem of more than ordinary dimensions. For fully ten minutes he
sat absolutely motionless, then suddenly he straightened up like a
jack-in-the-box and summoned Mr. Skinner.

"Skinner," he said plaintively, "I'm feeling a little run down. Will
you please be good enough to book Florry and me passage to Europe right
away. I've never been to Europe, you know, Skinner, and I think it's
time I took a vacation."

Mr. Skinner smiled. "Why all the hurry?" he queried.

"I want to try out a theory," Cappy replied. "I have a great curiosity,
Skinner, to ascertain if there is any truth in the old saying that
absence makes the heart grow fonder. And if it does, Skinner--why, the
sooner I start the sooner I can get back."

Mr. Skinner went out mystified. As Mark Twain's friend, Mr. Ballou,
remarked about the coffee, Cappy Ricks was a little too "technical" for
him.

CHAPTER XXXI. INTERNAL COMBUSTION

The Quickstep had arrived in port again before Cappy Ricks and Florry
could get away to Europe, so Matt came down by train from Los Medanos
and was granted the meager comfort of a farewell with his heart's
desire. Thereafter all comfort fled his life, for, with Cappy Ricks
away, Mr. Skinner was high and low justice, and he was not long keeping
Matt Peasley in ignorance of the fact that it was one thing to skipper
a Blue Star ship for Cappy Ricks and quite another thing to skipper the
same ship for the Blue Star manager. For Mr. Skinner had never liked
Captain Peasley, and, moreover, he never intended to, for the master
of the Quickstep was not sufficiently submissive to earn the general
manager's approbation as a desirable employee, and Cappy Ricks was the
only man with a will and a way of his own who could get along amicably
in the same office with the efficient and cold-blooded Mr. Skinner.

Cappy wasn't outside Sandy Hook before Mr. Skinner had Matt on the
carpet for daring to bring the Quickstep up river without a pilot. He
demanded an explanation.

"I made careful note of all the twists and turns when the pilot took me
up the first time," Matt declared. "It isn't a difficult channel, so
I decided to save forty-five dollars the next time and take her up
myself."

"Suppose you'd buried her nose in the mud and we'd had to lighter her
deckload to get her off," Mr. Skinner suggested.

Matt grinned. "If your aunt was a man she'd be your uncle, wouldn't
she?" he pa