uartermaster, purser, and freight clerk. One Neils Halvorsen, a
solemn Swede with a placid, bovine disposition, constituted the
fo'castle hands, while Bart McGuffey, a wastrel of the Gibney
type but slower-witted, reigned supreme in the engine room. Also
his case resembled that of Mr. Gibney in that McGuffey's job on
the _Maggie_ was the first he had had in six months and he
treasured it accordingly. For this reason he and Gibney had been
inclined to take considerable slack from Captain Scraggs until
McGuffey discovered that, in all probability, no engineer in the
world, except himself, would have the courage to trust himself
within range of the _Maggie's_ boilers, and, consequently, he had
Captain Scraggs more or less at his mercy. Upon imparting this
suspicion to Mr. Gibney, the latter decided that it would be a
cold day, indeed, when his ticket would not constitute a club
wherewith to make Scraggs, as Gibney expressed it, "mind his P's
and Q's."

It will be seen, therefore, that mutual necessity held this
queerly assorted trio together, and, though they quarrelled
furiously, nevertheless, with the passage of time their own
weaknesses and those of the _Maggie_ had aroused in each for the
other a curious affection. While Captain Scraggs frequently
"pulled" a monumental bluff and threatened to dismiss both Gibney
and McGuffey--and, in fact, occasionally went so far as to order
them off his ship, on their part Gibney and McGuffey were wont
to work the same racket and resign. With the subsidence of their
anger and the return to reason, however, the trio had a habit of
meeting accidentally in the Bowhead saloon, where, sooner or
later, they were certain to bury their grudge in a foaming beaker
of steam beer, and return joyfully to the _Maggie_.

Of all the little ship's company, Neils Halvorsen, colloquially
designated as "The Squarehead," was the only individual who was,
in truth and in fact, his own man. Neils was steady, industrious,
faithful, capable, and reliable; any one of a hundred deckhand
jobs were ever open to Neils, yet, for some reason best known to
himself, he preferred to stick by the _Maggie_. In his dull way
it is probable that he was fascinated by the agile intelligence
of Mr. Gibney, the vitriolic tongue of Captain Scraggs, and the
elephantine wit and grizzly bear courage of Mr. McGuffey. At any
rate, he delighted in hearing them snarl and wrangle.

However, to return to the _Maggie_ which we left e