r, if this
continues, I shall yet fill a pauper's grave." He was silent for several
seconds; then: "By the way, Skinner, have you replied to that last
cablegram from the man Peasley?"

"No, sir. I didn't think it required an answer."

"You mean you didn't know what answer to give him," Cappy snarled.
"Well, neither do I; but since the cuss has got us into the spending
habit, I'm going to be reckless for once and send him a cable myself,
just to let him know I'm calling his bluff."

And, with that remark, Cappy squared round to his desk and wrote, in a
trembling hand: "Special messenger big as horse carries reply your last
cablegram."

"There," he said, turning to his general manager; "send that to the man
Peasley, and sign my name to it."

CHAPTER IX. MR. MURPHY ADVISES PREPAREDNESS

Matt Peasley said nothing to Mr. Murphy when Cappy Ricks' cryptic
cablegram was received. Insofar as Matt was concerned, that cablegram
closed the argument, for even had it seemed to demand a reply the
master of the Retriever would not--nay could not, have answered, for the
controversy had already ruined him financially. So he went on briskly
with his task of discharging the Retriever and when the A. D. liner
pulled out for Liverpool with Captain Noah's body on board, he laid off
work merely long enough to dip the ensign and run it to half mast again
until the steamer was out of sight; then he furled the flag, stored it
in the locker in Captain Noah's stateroom, into which he had now moved,
and went on superintending the discharging. When the vessel was empty he
had a tug tow him out into the roadstead, where he cast anchor and set
himself patiently to await the arrival of the special messenger "as big
as a horse."

Somehow Matt didn't relish that little dash of descriptive writing. In
conjunction with the noun horse Cappy Ricks had employed the indefinite
article a, and while a horse was a horse and Cappy might have had a
Shetland pony in mind when he coined the simile, nevertheless, a still
small voice whispered to Matt Peasley that at the time Cappy was really
thinking of a Percheron. The longer Matt chewed the cud of anticipation
the more acute grew his regret that he had threatened to throw his
successor overboard. He traced a certain analogy between that threat and
Cappy Ricks' simple declarative sentence, and finally he decided to take
Mr. Murphy into his confidence.

"Mike," he said, "did you ever hear any gossip to