, skipper," said the young man, with real feeling. "You are
the man to be promoted, not I. It isn't right--it doesn't seem real."

"There isn't any real steamboating on this coast any longer. It is--I
don't know what the devil it is," snarled the veteran. "I have been
sniffing and scouting. I'd like to be a mouse in the wall of them New
York offices and hear what it is they're trying to do to us poor cusses.
Ordered one day to keep the law; ordered the next day to break the law;
hounded by owners and threatened by the government! I'm glad I'm out of
it and glad you've got a good job. That last I'm specially glad about.
But keep your eye peeled. There are queer doings round about you!"

Fogg entered the cabin and shut the door behind him. He found Boyne
sitting on a stool and looking somewhat apprehensive. "Hiding?" inquired
Fogg.

"I thought I wouldn't show myself till I was sure about who was on that
tug," said the young man.

"That's the boy, David," complimented Fogg, with real heartiness.
"You're no fool. Nothing like being careful. Pack your bag and go aboard
the tug." He marched out.

"Philadelphia charter has been canceled, eh?" asked Captain Wass. The
tone of his voice did not invite amity.

"It has, sir."

"Seems queer to turn down a cargo that's there waiting--and the old boat
can carry it cheaper than anybody else, the way I've got expenses fined
down."

"Are you trying to tell me my business?"

"I have beep steamboating forty years, and I know a little something
about it."

Mr. Fogg looked at the old mariner, eyes narrowed. He wanted to inform
Captain Wass that the latter knew altogether too much about steamboating
for the kind of work that was planned out along the coast in those
ticklish times.

"Then I ain't to expect anything special from now on?" asked the
skipper. In spite of his determination to be crusty and keep his upper
lip stiff, he could not repress a little wistfulness, and his eyes roved
over the old freighter with affection.

"Not a thing, sir!" Mr. Fogg was blunt and cool. He started for the
ladder. He slapped the shoulder of Mayo as he passed the young man.
"Here's the kind of chap we're looking for nowadays. The sooner you
report, my boy, the better for you."

With Boyne following him, he climbed down the swaying ladder, and was
lifted from the lower rungs over the tug's rail to a secure footing.

After the lines had been cast off and the tug went floundering away at
a s