hooner, an' possessin' the secret of the
latitude an' longitude o' the island, an' bein' the movin'
sperrit, so to speak, declares himself in on fifty-one per cent.
o' the capital stock. Stocksellin' will commence just as soon as
the printer can deliver the certificates.

"In the course of a somewhat checkered career, Mac, I've seen some
suckers, an' I've told some lies, but this here was th' crownin'
event of my life. We had applications for stock the next morning
before me an' Bull was out o' bed. Four hundred and thirty-one
would-be colonists comes flockin' around us, tryin' to hand us $500
each. Bull questions 'em all very closely, and outer the lot he
selects the biggest damn fools in evidence. He was careful to select
little skinny men whenever possible. They was a lot o' Willie boys
an' young bloods lookin' for adventure, an' me an' Bull McGinty was
just the lads to give it to 'em in bucketfuls. The little nosy
reporter with the hair was fair crazy to come, but McGinty gets a
jackleg doctor to examine him an' swear that he's sufferin' from
spatulation o' the medulla oblongata, housemaid's knee, and the
hives. We're mighty sorry, but it's agin the by-laws to bring him
along. He felt heartbroken, so just before we up hook with the
expedition, I had Bull give him an' the other newspaper boys a
hundred dollars each. They was fine lads, all three, an' give us
lots o' free advertisin'.

"Bull got greedy an' was for charterin' another schooner an'
givin' all comers a run for their money, but I was wise enough to
see the danger o' numbers, an' argued him out of it. I went mate
on the _Dashin' Wave_, as per program, an' on a lovely summer day
we towed out, with half San Francisco crowdin' the wharves an'
wishin' us bon voyage, which is French for a profitable trip.

"We had a nice lot o' sick children on our hands before we was
over th' Potato Patch. We didn't have a regular crew, exceptin'
Bull McGinty an' me an' the Chinaman who shipped as cook.
However, some of the brotherhood used to go yachting, an' they
was all the crew we needed. We had a fair run to Honolulu, where
we took on five thousand dollars in trade--beads, an' mouth
organs, an' calico, an' juice harps, an' dollar watches, an' a
lot of old army revolvers with the firin' pins filed off, and
what not.

"From Honolulu, we clears for Pago Pago, where all hands went
ashore an' enjoyed themselves visitin' the different points o'
interest. From Pago Pago, w