took on in the place of John Gavitt."

"Humph!" said the clerk, sleepily; "I thought that one _was_ John
Gavitt."

"No; he merely took Gavitt's place and name. Tell me all you know about
him."

"I don't know anything about him, except that he was fool enough to pull
Buck M'Grath out of the river just after M'Grath had tried to bump him
over the bows."

This was a new little side-light on the characteristics of the man who
was wanted. Broffin pulled gently at the thread of narrative until he
had all the particulars of the humane mutiny and the near-tragedy in
which it had terminated.

"Stuck to him and kept him from drowning till you could pick 'em up, did
he--what?" was his commentary on the story. "Then what happened?"

"Oh, nothing much--or nothing very different. Of course, Mac favored the
fellow all he could, after that; gave him the light end of it when there
was any light end. But he didn't get his chance to even up right until
we got to St. Louis."

Here, apparently, was another overlooked item in the list of things to
be considered, and Broffin grappled for it.

"How was that?" he asked.

"I don't know for a certainty. But I put it up that the fellow took Mac
into his confidence--a little--and told him he wanted to make a run for
it as soon as we hit the levee at St. Louis. He hadn't got his pay; we
always hold the 'rousties'' money back till we're unloaded, if we can;
so Mac advanced it, or claimed that he did."

It was Broffin's business to put two and two together, and at this
conjuncture the process was sufficiently simple. With a hundred thousand
dollars in his possession, the make-believe deck-hand would not be
foolish enough to run even a hypothetical risk for the sake of saving
the bit of wage-money. Broffin's next query seemed wholly irrelevant.

"Do you carry any nippers or handcuffs on the _Belle Julie_, Maurice?"
he asked.

"Yes; I believe Mac has an odd pair or so in his dunnage; in fact, I
know he has. I've seen him use 'em on an obstreperous nigger."

From the handcuffs Broffin went off at another tangent.

"Of course, so far as you know, nobody on the boat suspected that the
fellow who called himself Gavitt was anything but the 'roustie' he was
passing himself off for? You didn't know of his having any talk with any
of the upper-deck people?"

"Only once," said the day-clerk, promptly.

"When was that?"

"It was one day just after the 'man-overboard' incident, a little while