nd of the
S.S. _Maggie_. With the memory of a scant breakfast upon him,
however, Captain Scraggs was still harsh and bitter.

"Git out o' my pilot house an' aft where the police can find you
when they come lookin' for you," he screeched. "Don't you give no
orders to my deckhand."

"Stow it, you ass. Don't fly in the face of your own interests,
Scraggsy, you bandit. Yonder's a prize, but it'll require
imagination to win it; consequently you need Adelbert P. Gibney
in your business, if you're contemplatin' hookin' on to that
bark, snakin' her into San Francisco Bay, an' libelin' her for
ten thousand dollars' salvage. You an' me an' Mac an' The
Squarehead here have sailed this strip o' coast too long together
to quarrel over the first good piece o' salvage we ever run into.
Come, Scraggsy. Be decent, forget the past, an' let's dig in
together."

"If I had a gun," Scraggs cried, "I do believe I'd shoot you. Git
out o' my pilot house, I tell you, or I'll stick a knife in you.
I'll carve your gizzard, you black-guardin' pirate."

Inasmuch as Scraggs really did produce a knife, Mr. Gibney backed
prudently away. "You're mighty quick to let bygones be bygones
when you see me with a fortune in sight with you wantin' to horn
in on the deal, ain't you?" the owner jeered. "You must think I'm
a born fool."

"I don't think it a-tall. I know it. You're worse'n a born fool.
You're sufferin' from acquired idiocy, which is the mental state
folks find themselves in when they refuse to learn by experience
an' profit by example. I've always claimed you ain't got no more
imagination than a chicken, an' I'll prove it to you right now.
Here you are, braggin' about how you're goin' to salvage that
bark but givin' no thought whatever to the means to be employed.
How're you goin' to pull her off? If the _Maggie_ ever had a
towline aboard I never seen it. Perhaps, however, you're
figgerin' on poolin' all the shoestrings aboard."

"Every ship that size has a steel towin' cable, wound up on a
reel, nice an' handy," the new navigating officer reminded Mr.
Gibney. "I can put the skiff out, get the bark's line, haul it
back, an' make it fast on the bitts you two skunks has been
occupyin' instead of a prison cell."

"Hello! There's another county gone Democratic. Your old man must
ha' been to sea once an' told you about it. Them bitts won't
hold."

"I'll make the towline fast to the mainmast."

"That'll hold, I admit. But has the _Maggie_