t Peasley.

"Matt," he said very solemnly, "I'm glad this thing happened. I've
always had a good opinion of you, but now I know that though you have
many excellent qualities you do not possess that quality which above all
others I require in an employee or a son-in-law.

"You aren't loyal. You had the sweetest case of salvage against our
vessel that any man could go into court with, and you kicked it
away like that, just for your own selfish ends. You sacrificed your
shipmates, who would have been awarded a pro rata of the salvage, and
you were false to the trust your owners reposed in you."

Cappy stood up, his face pale with fury, and shook an admonitory finger
under Matt Peasley's nose.

"That act, sir, is an index of your true character," he thundered.
"A master who will deceive his owners, who will be false to their
interests, is a scoundrel, sir; do you hear me?--a scoundrel. You will
oblige me, sir, by refraining from any attentions to my daughter in
the future. To think that you have descended to such a petty, miserable
subterfuge to trick me and rob your owners! Thank God, I have found you
out in time!"

"Yes, isn't it fortunate?" Matt answered humorously. "And if you get any
angrier you'll bust an artery and die."

"Out of my office!" Cappy raved; for though he was a business man, and
never hesitated to do business in a businesslike way, he was the soul of
business honor, and in all his life he had never taken a mean or unfair
advantage of those who trusted him. The knowledge that Matt Peasley had
done such a thing filled him with rage not unmixed with sorrow.

"I'll be gone in a minute," Matt replied gently; "only before I go
permit me to tell you something, and on my honor as a man and a sailor I
assure you I speak the truth. That wasn't a salvage job at all."

"What?"

Matt repeated the statement. Cappy blinked and clawed at his whiskers.

"Oh," he said presently, "I had forgotten that you and Captain Murphy
were once shipmates. And so that fellow Murphy stood in with you to work
a hocuspocus game on me, eh?" he thundered. "By Godfrey, I'll fire
him for it!" and he rushed to the office door, opened it and called to
Skinner: "Skinner, Murphy is to be fired. Attend to it." Then he closed
the door again and faced Matt Peasley.

"Murphy is to be reinstated," Matt assured Cappy, "for the reason that
Murphy was in deadly earnest when he signed that paper. In five minutes
he would have been a skipper