her cargo over the
American-Hawaiian road there. I figured--"

"You infernal scoundrel!" Cappy Ricks murmured. "You--slippery--devil!"

"Of course," Matt went on calmly, "I had no means of knowing what
freight rate Morrow & Company received; but I figured that they ought to
get about forty per cent., the Panama Railroad about twenty per cent.,
and the steamer on the Atlantic side the remaining forty. So I decided
to play safe and ask sixty per cent. of the through rate, figuring that
the Panama Railroad would give it to me rather than have the Tillicum's
cargo diverted over their competitor's road at Tehuantepec. In the first
place they were depending on business from Morrow & Company's ships;
and, with Morrow & Company gone broke and a new company liable to take
over their line, it would be a bad precedent to establish, to permit one
cargo to go to the competitor. Future cargoes might follow it!

"Then, too, the schedule of the ships on the Atlantic side of the Canal
doubtless had been made up already, with a view to handling this cargo
ex-Tillicum, and to lose the cargo would throw that schedule out of
joint; in fact, from whatever angle I viewed the situation, I could see
that the railroad company would prefer to give up its twenty per cent.
rather than decline my terms. They might think their competitor had
already made me an offer! Of course, it was all a mighty bluff on my
part, but bluffs are not always called, particularly when they're made
good and strong; and, believe me, my bluff was anything but weak in the
knees. I told the Panama people to wire their reply to me at San Diego,
and when I got to that city, twenty-four hours later, their answer was
awaiting me."

"They called your bluff?" Mr. Skinner challenged.

"Pooh-pooh for you!" Matt laughed. "God is good and the devil not half
bad. I got the guaranties I asked for, old dear! Don't you ever think
I'd have been crazy enough to go to Panama without them."

Cappy jerked forward in his chair again.

"Matt," he said sternly, "you have defaulted in your payments to the
Blue Star Navigation Company to the tune of eighteen thousand dollars,
and I'd like to hear what you have to say about that."

"Well, I couldn't help it," Matt replied, "I was shy ten thousand
dollars when Morrow & Company defaulted on me, and I was at sea when the
other payment fell due. However, you had your recourse. You could have
canceled the charter on me. That was a chance I had t