fore long, Mr. Ricks. I pulled your barkentine
Retriever out of the breakers this morning. In fifteen minutes she would
have been on the beach and a total loss--and I have a document, signed
by Captain Murphy and his mates, to prove it. I offered the pig-headed
fellow a tow at ten o'clock the night before, but he declined it--trying
to save a few dollars, of course--so when I had him where he had to have
my services--"

"Well!" Cappy snapped, "send your owners round and we'll try to settle
out of court. If they're hogs we'll fight 'em, that's all."

"And if you do you'll get licked. We'll get a quarter of the value of
that vessel and her cargo. She's easily worth fifty thousand dollars and
her cargo is worth thirty thousand more--that's eighty thousand, and a
quarter of eighty thousand dollars is twenty thousand."

"You'll have to fight for it, I tell you," Cappy reiterated.

"There is no necessity for a fight, Mr. Ricks. It all rests with
me whether this is a salvage job or just a plain towing job at the
customary rates."

Cappy looked at his ex-skipper keenly.

"Matt," he charged, "you've got a scheme. You want something."

"I do; I want to save you a lot of fuss and worry and expense. In return
I want you to do something for me."

"I'll do it, Matt. What is the program?"

"Give me that twenty thousand dollars you justly owe me--twenty thousand
dollars I have to my credit on your books, which you are withholding
just because you have the power to withhold it."

"And in return--"

"I'll tear up the deadly document I extorted from Murphy and report a
mere towage job to my owners."

Cappy pressed the push-button and a boy appeared.

"Tell Mr. Skinner I want to see him," he ordered, and an instant later
Mr. Skinner entered. "Skinner," said Cappy, "draw a check for twenty
thousand in favor of Matt Peasley, and charge it to his account."

"And then send it over to the bank and certify it," Matt added, "because
before I get through with you, Mr. Ricks, you'll be tempted to stop
payment on it, if I know you--and I think I do."

Half an hour later Cappy handed Matt Peasley, a certified check for
twenty thousand dollars, and in exchange the latter handed Cappy the
only proof the Red Stack people would have had, over and above the
contradictory testimony of the crews of the respective vessels, that the
services of their tug constituted salvage and not towage. Cappy read it,
tore it into shreds and glared at Mat