remarked, as he got up and rubbed the seat of his dungarees. "If
you'd had an ounce of sense, Scraggsy, you'd have saved twenty
dollars an' rigged a watch-tackle, although even then the thwart
would have come away, pullin' agin a vacuum that way. Well,
you've lost a good skiff worth at least twenty-five dollars not
to mention the two ash breezes that went with her. That helps
some. What're you goin' to do now? Lay the _Maggie_ alongside the
bark? I wouldn't if I was you. The sea's a mite choppy an' if you
bump the _Maggie_ agin the bark she'll do one o' two things--stave
in her topsides or bump that top-heavy deckload o' vegetables overboard.
An' if that happens," he reminded Scraggs, "you'll be doin' your
bookkeepin' with red ink for quite a spell."

"I ain't licked yet--not by a jugful," Scraggs snapped.
"Halvorsen, haul down that signal halyard from the mizzenmast,
take one end of it in your teeth, an' swim back to the _Maggie_
with it. We'll fasten a heavier line to the signal halyard, bend
the other end of the heavy line to the cable, an' haul the cable
aboard with the _Maggie's_ winch."

"You say that so nice, Scraggsy, old hopeful, I'm tempted to
think you can whistle it. Neils, he's only askin' you to risk
your life overboard for nothing. 'Tain't in the shippin' articles
that a seaman's got to do that. If he wants a swimmin' exhibition
make him pay for it--through the nose. An' if I was you, I'd find
out how much o' this two thousand dollars' towage he's goin' to
distribute to his crew. Pers'nally I'd get mine in advance."

"Adelbert P. Gibney," Captain Scraggs hissed. "There's such a
thing as drivin' a man to distraction. Halvorsen, are you with
me?"

"Aye bane--for saxty dollars. Hay bane worth a month's pay for
take dat swim."

"You dirty Scowegian ingrate. Well, you don't get no sixty
dollars from me. Bear a hand and we'll drop the ship's work boat
overboard. I guess you can tow a signal halyard to the _Maggie_,
can't you, Neils?"

Neils could--and did. Within fifteen minutes the _Maggie_ was
fast to her prize. "Now we'll cockbill the anchor," quoth Captain
Scraggs, so McGuffey reporting sufficient steam in the donkey to
turn over the windlass, the anchor was raised and cockbilled, and
the _Maggie_ hauled away on the hawser the instant Captain
Scraggs signalled his new navigating officer that the hook was
free of the bottom.

"The old girl don't seem to be makin' headway in the right
direction,"