igold Cafe
next morning he was almost touched to observe that both Gibney
and McGuffey showed up arrayed in dungarees, wherefore Scraggs
knew his late enemies purposed proceeding to the _Maggie_
immediately after breakfast and working in the engine room all
day Sunday. Such action, when he knew both gentlemen to be the
possessors of wealth far beyond the dreams of avarice, bordered
so closely on the miraculous that Scraggs made a mental resolve
to play fair in the future--at least as fair as the limits of his
cross-grained nature would permit. He was so cheerful and happy
that McGuffey, taking advantage of the situation, argued him into
some minor repairs to the engine. The work was so far advanced by
midnight Sunday that Scraggs realized he would get to sea by
Tuesday noon, so he dismissed Gibney and McGuffey and ordered
them home for some needed sleep. McGuffey's heart was with the
_Maggie's_ internal economy, however, and on Monday morning he
was up betimes, leaving Mr. Gibney to snore blissfully until
eight o'clock.

About nine o'clock, as Mr. Gibney was on his way to the Marigold
Cafe for breakfast, he was mildly interested, while passing the
Embarcadero warehouse, to note the presence of fully a dozen
seedy-looking gentlemen of undoubted Hebraic antecedents,
congregated in a circle just outside the warehouse door. There
was an air of suppressed excitement about this group of Jews that
aroused Mr. Gibney's curiosity; so he decided to cross over and
investigate, being of the opinion that possibly one of their
number had fallen in a fit. He had once had an epileptic shipmate
and was peculiarly expert in the handling of such cases.

Now, if the greater portion of Mr. Gibney's eventful career had
not been spent at sea, he would have known, by the red flag that
floated over the door, that a public auction was about to take
place, and that the group of Hebrew gentlemen constituted an
organization known as the Forty Thieves, whose business it was to
dominate the bidding at all auctions, frighten off, or buy off,
or outbid all competitors, and eventually gather unto themselves,
at their own figures, all goods offered for sale.

In the centre of the group Mr. Gibney noticed a tall, lanky
individual, evidently the leader, who was issuing instructions in
a low voice to his henchmen. This individual, though Mr. Gibney
did not know it, was the King of the Forty Thieves. As Mr. Gibney
luffed into view the king eyed him wit