e loss might go higher, for all he knew. Also, he had lost his
skiff, and McGuffey and Gibney had practically blackmailed him
out of forty dollars. Then, to cap the climax, he had been forced
to abandon two thousand dollars to his enemies; and as the
_Maggie_ crept north at three knots an hour the knowledge that he
must, even against his desires, install a new boiler, overwhelmed
him to such an extent that he found it impossible to submit
silently to the nagging of the navigating officer. One word
borrowed another until diplomatic relations were severed and, in
the language of the classic, they "mixed it." They were fairly
well matched, and, to the credit of Captain Scraggs be it said,
whenever he believed himself to have a fighting chance Scraggs
would fight and fight well, under the Tom-cat rules of fisticuffs.

Following a bloody battle in the pilot house, he subdued the
mate; following his victory he was still war mad, so he went to
the engine-room hatch and abused the engineer. As a result of the
day's events, both men quit when the _Maggie_ was tied up at
Jackson Street wharf and once more Captain Scraggs was helpless.
In his extremity, he wished he hadn't been so hard on Mr. Gibney
and McGuffey, for he realized he could never hope to get them
back until their salvage money should be spent.

He had other tortures in addition. He could not afford to await
the construction of a new boiler, for if he did some other
skipper would cut in on the vegetable trade he had worked up, for
vegetables, being perishable, could not lie on the dock at
Halfmoon Bay longer than forty-eight hours. It behooved Scraggs,
therefore, to place an order for the new boiler and, in the
meantime, to get a gang down aboard the _Maggie_ immediately and
put in at least ten new tubes. By working night and day this job
might be accomplished in forty-eight hours, and, fortunately,
Sunday intervened. Scraggs shuddered at thought of the expense,
for in addition to being parsimonious he had very little ready
cash on hand and no credit.

When Mr. Gibney and McGuffey, wrapped in the calm thrall of their
new-found financial independence, arrived at the _Maggie's_
berth, they were inclined to levity. Indeed, they had come for
the express purpose of spoofing their late employer; to crow over
him and grind his poor soul into the dirt. Fortunately for
Scraggs, he was not aboard, but sounds of activity coming from
the engine room aroused McGuffey's curios