's an'
lets go both anchors.

"What was this Idea? It was a waterfront reporter. It was three
waterfront reporters, from three mornin' papers, an' all lookin'
for news.

"'Joe,' says one little runt, all hair an' nose an' eyeglasses,
'there ain't enough news on the Front to-day to dust a hummin'
bird's eyebrow. Give me a story, Joe. Somethin' new an' brimmin'
with human interest. You must have somethin' up your sleeve,
ain't yuh?'

"Sheeny Joe is sellin' a Panama paraqueet a pair o' six-bit
dungarees for a dollar and a half, and he ain't got no time for
reporters, but he looks up an' he sees me lingerin' in the
doorway.

"'Gib,' says he, 'tell these reporter friends o' mine about the
time you was wrecked in the Straits o' Magellan, an' the fight
you had with them man-eatin' Patagonian cannibal savages.'

"Of course, I never was wrecked in no Straits o' Magellan, and as
for man-eatin' Patagonian cannibal savages, I wouldn't know one
if I met him in my grog. But seein' as how Sheeny Joe is busy an'
me owin' him quite a little bill, I have to make good, so I tells
them the most hair-raisin' story they ever listened to. I showed
'em an old scar on my left leg where I was vaccinated once, and
told 'em that's where they shot me with a bow an' arrer. While I
was tellin' my story Sheeny Joe has to run out in th' back yard
an' roll over three times, he's that fascinated with what I'm
tellin' his friends.

"Did them fellers eat it up? They did. The story comes out next
day with trimmin's on th' front page, an' I'm a hero. Of course
me an' Sheeny Joe knows I'm a liar, but what's a lie or two when
you're helpin' out a shipmate? But anyhow, the whole business
gives me the idee I'm lookin' for, an' I takes all three mornin'
papers down to Bull McGinty an' lets him read 'em.

"'Now,' says I, when Bull is through readin', 'you have a sample
of what publicity does for a man. I'm a hero. But that don't
outfit the schooner _Dashin' Wave_. A man don't get no wages as a
hero, Bull. Nevertheless,' says I, 'I have invented a story that
will bring in money,' an' I tell the story to Bull. I don't leave
him until I have that yarn drilled right inter his soul, an' then
I call on Sheeny Joe an' tell him to pass the word to all of his
reporter friends that if they want a good story to go down to
Shanghai Nelson's boardin' house an' ask for Bull McGinty,
skipper o' the schooner _Dashin' Wave_.

"Did they come? Mac, they came a-runnin'.