smile. "I thought as much. You haven't
any, my sonny--not so much as would cover a threepenny-bit."

"You have, I suppose?" sneered Cai.

"Heaps."

"Very well; let's have a sample. . . . You won't find it on the
mantelpiece," for 'Bias had turned about and was picking up his pipe
again with great deliberation.

"I've no wish to hurt your feelin's undooly," said he, eyeing the bowl
for a moment and tapping out the ashes into his palm.

"Don't mind _me!_"

"But I _do_ mind ye. . . . See here now, Cai," he resumed after a short
pause, "we've known one another--let me see--how long?"

"Seventeen years, come the twenty-first of November next," quickly
responded Cai, fumbling at the tobacco-jar. "In Rotterdam, if you'll
remember--our vessels lyin' alongside. 'Hullo!' says you."

"Far as I remember, you asked me aboard."

"Yes. 'Hullo!' says you; 'that's a pretty-lookin' craft o' your'n.'
'She'll work in' an' out o' most places,' says I. 'Speedy too, I
reckon,' says you, 'for a hard-wood ship; though a bit fine forra'd.
A wet boat, I doubt?' 'Not a bit,' says I; 'that's a mistake strangers
are apt to make about the _Hannah Hoo_. Like to step aboard an' cast a
look over her fittin's? I can show ye something in the way of teak
panels,' says I: and you came. That's how it began," wound up Cai,
staring hard at the tobacco-jar, for--to tell the truth--a faint mist
obscured his vision.

'Bias, too, was staring hard, down upon the hearth-rug between his feet.

"Ay; an' from that day to this never a question atween us we couldn'
settle by the toss of a coin." He continued to stare down gloomily.
"Tossin' won't help us, not in this case," he added.

"It wouldn't be respectful."

"It wouldn't be fair, neither. . . . You may talk as you please, Cai,
but the widow favours me."

"I asked ye for proofs just now, if you remember."

"So you did. And if you remember I asked you for the same, not two
minutes afore. We can't give 'em, neither of us: and, if we could,
why--as you said a moment since--'twouldn't be respectful. Let's play
fair then, damn it!"

"Certainly," agreed Cai, striking a match and holding it to his pipe.
(But his hand shook.) "That's if you'll suggest how."

'Bias mused for a space. "Very well," said he at length; "then I'll
suggest that we both sit down and write her a letter; post the letters
together, and let the best man win."

"Couldn't be fairer," agreed Cai, after a moment's re