241

XV SMOKE 266

XVI THE MIGHT OF NIPPON 277

XVII MY MATE 293

XVIII LUND'S LUCK 332

A Man to His Mate

CHAPTER I

BLIND SAMSON

It was perfect weather along the San Francisco water-front, and Rainey
reacted to the brisk touch of the trade-wind upon his cheek, the breeze
tempering the sun, bringing with it a tang of the open sea and a hint of
Oriental spices from the wharves. He whistled as he went, watching a
lumber coaster outward bound. The dull thump of a heavy cane upon the
timbered walk and the shuffle of uncertain feet warned him from
blundering into a man tapping his way along the Embarcadero, a giant who
halted abruptly and faced him, leaning on the heavy stick.

"Matey," asked the giant, "could you put a blind man in the way of
finding the sealin' schooner _Karluk_?"

The voice fitted its owner, Rainey thought--a basso voice tempered to
the occasion, a deep-sea voice that could bellow above the roar of a
gale if needed. For all his shoregoing clothes and shuffle, the man was
certainly a sailor, or had been. All the skin uncovered by cloth or hair
was weathered to leather, the great hands curled in as if they clutched
an invisible rope. He wore dark glasses with side lenses, over which
heavy brows projected in shaggy wisps of red hair.

Blind as the man proclaimed himself with voice and action, Rainey sensed
something back of those colored glasses that seemed to be appraising
him, almost as if the will of the man was peering, or listening, focused
through those listless sockets. A kind of magnetism, not at all
attractive, Rainey decided, even as he offered help and information.

"You're not fifty yards from the _Karluk_," Rainey replied. "But you're
bound in the wrong direction. Let me put you right. I'm going that way
myself."

"That's kind of ye, matey," said the other. "But I picked ye for that
sort, hearin' you whistlin' as you came swingin' along. Light-hearted, I
thinks, an' young, most likely; he'll help a stranded man. Give me the
touch of yore arm, matey, an' I'll stow this spar of mine."

He swung about, slinging the curving handle of the stick over his right
elbow as the fingers of his left hand placed themselves on Rainey's
proffered