psails were ordered in, and he climbed
aloft and had a long, lone struggle before he got the heavy canvas
folded and lashed.

When he reached the deck a mate commanded him to fasten the canvas
covers over the skylights of the house. The work brought him within
range of the conversation which Captain Downs and Bradish were carrying
on, pacing the deck together.

"Of course I don't want to throw down anybody, captain," Bradish was
saying. There was an obsequious note in his voice; it was the tone of a
man who was affecting confidential cordiality in order to get on--to win
a favor. "But I have a lot of sympathy for you and for the rest of the
schooner people. I have been right there in the office, and have had
a finger in the pie, and I've seen what has been done in a good many
cases. Of course, you understand, this is all between us! I'm not giving
away any of the office secrets to be used against the big fellows. But
I'm willing to show that I'm a friend of yours. And I know you'll be a
friend of mine, and keep mum. All is, you can get wise from what I tell
you and can keep your eyes peeled from now on."

Mayo heard fragmentary explanation of how the combination of steamboat
and barge interests had operated to leave only pickings to the
schooners. The two men were tramping the deck together, and at the turns
were too far away from him to be heard distinctly.

"But they're putting over the biggest job of all just now," proceeded
Bradish. "Confound it, Captain Downs, I'm not to be blamed for running
away with a man's daughter after watching him operate as long as I have.
His motto is, 'Go after it when you see a thing you want in this world.'
I've been trained to that system. I've got just as much right to go
after a thing as he. I'm treasurer of the Paramount--that's the trust
with which they intend to smash the opposition. My job is to ask no
questions and to sign checks when they tell me to, and Heaven only knows
what kind of a goat it will make of me if they ever have a show-down in
the courts! They worked some kind of a shenanigan to grab off the Vose
line; I wired a pot of money to Fletcher Fogg, who was doing the dirty
work, and it was paid to a clerk to work proxies at the annual meeting.
And then Fogg put up some kind of a job on a greenhorn captain--worked
a flip trick on the fellow and made him shove the _Montana_ onto the
sands. I suppose they'll have the Vose line at their price before I get
back."

May