. What do you say?"

"I'll take my chances."

"By gad! sir, you're a square chap, and I'm not meeting many of that
sort in these days! Let this thing hang. Before you leave the city, slip
word to me here. I'll tell you the news!"

With that understanding they parted.

Three days later, acknowledging to himself that he was a thoroughly
beaten young man, Mayo walked into the Nicholas Hotel. He had been
unable to secure either encouragement, money, or credit. There were
parties who would back him in any attempt to junk the _Conomo_; but his
proposition to raise her with the aid of the tribe of Hue and Cry made
his project look like a huge joke and stirred hearty amusement all
along the water-front. Everywhere he found proof of Fogg's neat work of
discouragement. If a real salvaging company had turned the scheme down
as impracticable, how could penniless amateurs hope? It was conceded
in business and financial circles that they hoped because they were
amateurs.

Mayo's outlook on his own strictly personal affairs was as dismal as
his view of the Razee project in which his associates were concerned. He
went to the hotel merely because he had promised Burkett that he would
notify that modern buccaneer regarding any intended departure. He
despondently reflected that if Fogg and Burkett had agreed again, the
combination against him still existed. If they were persistently on the
outs, Burkett was merely a discredited agent whose word, without proofs,
could be as easily brushed away as his connection with Fogg in the'
matter of the _Conomo_. In fact, so Mayo pondered, he might find
association with Burkett dangerous, because demands for consideration
can be twisted into semblance of blackmail by able lawyers. He
entertained so few hopes in regard to any assistance from Burkett that
he was rather relieved to discover that the man was no longer a guest at
the hotel.

"Has he left town?"

"I suppose there's no secret about the thing," explained the clerk. "Mr.
Fogg had the man arrested yesterday, for threatening words and actions.
Something of that sort. Anyway, he is in jail and must give bonds to
keep the peace."

Mayo's flagging interest in the possibilities of Burkett as an aid in
his affairs was a bit quickened by that piece of news, and he hurried
up to the jail. If ever a captured and fractious bird of passage was
beating wings against his cage's bars in fury and despair, Mr. Burkett
was doing it with vigor. Mayo,