st
impulse with reference to Matt Peasley was eminently fair. He really
desired to convey to this persistent person an intimation to the effect
that the latter was, colloquially speaking, monkeying with the buzz-saw
and in imminent danger of having his head lopped off; and he would have
given it, too, provided the delivery of the ultimatum should not
have cost the Blue Star Navigation Company ninety-eight cents a word,
including the address. Consequently, Skinner, always efficient and
realizing that McBride would doubtless be enabled to pick up another
mate in Cape Town, or in a pinch, could dispense with a first mate
altogether, made answer to Matt Peasley as follows:

San Francisco, Feb. 17th, 19--.

Rickstar,
Cape Town.

Peasley, you are hereby discharged. Turn over command second
mate, call consignees your wages immediately.

Bluestar.

Having dispatched this cablegram and ended it all, as it were, Mr.
Skinner next cast his cold gray glance adown the duplicate crew list
borrowed from the deputy shipping commissioner, and discovered that the
second mate shipped at San Francisco was one Christian Swenson.

"I do hope he's not a drinking man," Skinner sighed. "The Retriever is
quite a responsibility to entrust to a man we have never seen or
heard of before, but the man Swenson can scarcely be as vicious and
insubordinate as this fellow Peasley, and under the circumstances we'll
have to run the risk."

And having wotted the which, Mr. Skinner cabled Christian Swenson to
take charge of the Retriever, at master's wages, until the arrival of
his successor. Next he cabled The Harlow and Benton Company, Limited,
requesting them to pay off Matt Peasley and, if necessary, invoke the
authorities to remove him from the vessel.

"That fellow is a tough one to handle," he remarked to Cappy Ricks, to
whom he showed all the cablegrams, "but I guess this will about cut off
his wind."

"A sea lawyer is the curse of the Seven Seas!" Cappy declared waspishly.
He was very bitter against Matt Peasley, whom he now regarded as an ally
of the piratical cable company.

CHAPTER VII. CAPPY RICKS MAKES BAD MEDICINE

That afternoon Mr. Skinner herded Captain McBride of the Nokomis and
his Norwegian mate into Cappy Ricks' office. Cappy brought them to terms
very promptly, and the captain started for New York on the Overland the
same night.