of the darkness. Captain
Scraggs had a Jacob's ladder slung over the side and the mate and
two deckhands hung over the rail with lanterns, lighting up the
surrounding sea feebly for the benefit of the lone adventurer who
sat muffled in a great coat in the stern of a small boat rowed
by two men. There was a very slight sea running, and presently
the men in the small boat, watching their opportunity by the
ghostly light of the lanterns, ran their frail craft in under the
lee of the _Maggie_. The figure in the stern sheets leaped on the
instant, caught the Jacob's ladder, climbed nimbly over the side,
and swore heartily in very good English as his feet struck the
deck.

"What's the name of this floating coffin?" he demanded in a
chain-locker voice. It was quite evident that even in the darkness,
where her many defects were mercifully hidden, the _Maggie_ did not
suit the special envoy of the Mexican insurrectos.

"American steamer _Maggie_," said the skipper frigidly. "Scraggs
is my name, sir. And if you don't like my vessel----"

"Scraggsy!" roared the special envoy. "Scraggsy, for a thousand!
And the old _Maggie_ of all boats! Scraggsy, old tarpot, your
fin! Duke me, you doggoned old salamander!"

"Gib, my _dear_ boy!" shrieked Captain Scraggs and cast himself
into Mr. Gibney's arms in a transport of joy. Mr. Gibney, for it
was indeed he, pounded Captain Scraggs on the back with one great
hand while with the other he crushed the skipper's fingers to a
pulp, the while he called on all the powers of darkness to
witness that never in all his life had he received such a
pleasant surprise.

It was indeed a happy moment. All the old animosities and
differences were swallowed up in the glad hand-clasp with which
Mr. Gibney greeted his old shipmate of the green-pea trade.
Scraggs took him below at once and they pledged each other's
health in a steaming kettle of grog, while the _Maggie_, once
more on her course, rolled south toward Descanso Bay.

"Well, I'll be keel-hauled and skull-dragged!" said Captain
Scraggs, producing a box of two-for-a-quarter cigars and handing
it to Mr. Gibney. "Gib, my _dear_ boy, wherever have you been
these last three years?"

"Everywhere," replied Mr. Gibney. "I have been all over, mostly
in Panama and the Gold Coast. For two years I've been navigatin'
officer on the Colombian gunboat _Bogota_. When I was a young
feller I did a hitch in the navy and become a first-class gunner,
and then