and admire me by the hour. You can imagine how gay I used to
feel with flowers in my whiskers. That was one of the reasons why
I left her finally.

"But them was the days! Me an' Bull McGinty was the two finest
men north or south of the Line. We was worth six ordinary white
men each, and twenty blacks, and we was respected. I first met
Bull McGinty in Shanghai Nelson's boarding house, over in Oregon
Street, not three blocks from where we're settin' now. I was
twenty years old an' holdin' a second mate's ticket, for I'd been
battin' around the world on clipper ships since I was fourteen,
an' I'd bit my way to the front quicker than most. Bull was a big
dark man, edgin' up onto the thirty mark. His great grandmother'd
been a half-breed Batavian nigger, and his father was Irish. Bull
himself was nothin', havin' been born at sea, a thousand miles
from the nearest land. However, that ain't got nothin' to do with
the story. Bull McGinty was skipper an' owner of the schooner
_Dashin' Wave_, 258 tons net register, when I met him in Shanghai
Nelson's place. Also he was broke, with the _Dashin' Wave_ lyin'
out in the stream off Mission Rock with a Honolulu Chinaman
aboard as crew and watchman, while Bull hustled around shore
tryin' to raise funds to outfit her for another trip to the
Islands. He'd been beachcombin' ten days when I met him, and we
took to each other right off.

"'Gib,' says Bull McGinty, 'I like you an' if I ever get money
enough to provision the _Dashin' Wave_, pay the clearance fee,
and put a thousand or two of trade aboard her, you must come mate
with me and if you should have a little money by, enough to fix
us up, I'll not only give you the mate's berth, but I'll put you
in on half the lay.'

"'Done,' says I. 'I ain't got ten cents Mex to my name, but I'll
outfit that vessel an' get her to sea inside two weeks, or my
name ain't Adelbert P. Gibney.'

"To look at me now, McGuffey, you'd never think that in them days
I was one of the smartest young bucks that ever boxed the
compass. I was born with a great imagination, Mac. All my life my
imagination's been my salvation. The ability to grab opportunity
by the tail and twist it was my long suit, so after my talk with
Bull McGinty I took a cruise along the docks, lookin' for an
idea, until I come to Sheeny Joe's place. He used to keep a
sailors' outfittin' joint at Howard and East streets, an' as I
stood in his doorway, the Great Idea sails up to Sheeny Joe