te," suggested
McGuffey. "We've got the island, and there's a quorum present for
all meetin's."

Mr. Gibney smiled feebly. "We can appoint Tabu-Tabu the man
Friday."

"Sure," responded McGuffey, "and the king can be the goat.
Robinson Crusoe had a billy goat, didn't he, Gib?"

But Captain Scraggs refused to be heartened by this airy
persiflage. "I'm all het up after my fight with the king," he
quavered presently. "I wonder if there's any water on this
island."

"There is," announced Mr. Gibney pleasantly; "there is, Scraggsy.
There's water in just one spot, but it's there in abundance."

"Where's that spot?" inquired Scraggs eagerly.

Mr. Gibney removed his old Panama hat, and with his index finger
pointed downward to where the hair was beginning to disappear,
leaving a small bald spot on the crown of his ingenious head.

"There," he said, "right there, Scraggsy, old top. The only water
on this island is on the brain of Adelbert P. Gibney."

CHAPTER XXVI

Neils Halvorsen often wondered what had become of the _Maggie_
and Captain Scraggs. Mr. Gibney and Bartholomew McGuffey he knew
had turned their sun-tanned faces toward deep water some years
before Captain Scraggs and the _Maggie_ disappeared from the
environs of San Francisco Bay, and Neils Halvorsen was wise
enough to waste no time wondering what had become of _them_.
These two worthies might be anywhere, and every conceivable thing
under the sun might have happened to them; hence, in his idle
moments, Neils Halvorsen did not disturb his gray matter
speculating on their whereabouts and their then condition of
servitude.

But the continued absence of Captain Scraggs from his old haunts
created quite a little gossip along the waterfront, and in the
course of time rumours of his demise by sundry and devious routes
came to the ears of Neils Halvorsen. Now, Neils had sailed too
long with Captain Scraggs not to realize that the erstwhile
green-pea trader would be the last man to take a chance in any
hazardous enterprise unless forced thereto by the weight of
circumstance; also there was affection enough in his simple
Scandinavian heart to cause him to feel just a little worried
when two weeks passed and Captain Scraggs failed to show up. He
had disappeared in some mysterious manner from San Francisco Bay
and the old _Maggie_ had never been heard from again.

Hence Neils Halvorsen was puzzled. In fact, to such an extent was
Neils puzzled, that one