the _Alameda_.
Neils turned at the sound just in time to see a beautiful
gasoline schooner of about a hundred and thirty tons heading in
toward the bay. She was so close that Neils was enabled to make
out that her name was _Maggie II_.

"Vell, aye be dam," muttered Neils, and scratched his head, for
the name revived old memories. An hour later, when the _Alameda_
loafed into her berth at Brewer's dock, Neils noticed that the
schooner lay at anchor off the quarantine station.

That night Neils Halvorsen went ashore for those forms of
enjoyment peculiar to his calling, and in the Pantheon saloon,
whither his pathway led him, he filled himself with beer and
gossip. It was here that Neils came across an item in an
afternoon paper which challenged his instant attention. It was
just a squib in the shipping news, but Neils Halvorsen read it
with amazement and joy:

The power schooner _Maggie II_ arrived this morning, ten
days from the Friendly Islands. The little schooner came
into port with her hold bursting with the most valuable
cargo that has entered Honolulu in many years. It
consists for the most part of black coral.

The _Maggie II_ is commanded by Captain Phineas Scraggs,
and after taking on provisions and water to-day will
proceed to San Francisco, to-morrow, for discharge of
cargo.

"By yiminy," quoth Neils Halvorsen, "aye bat you that bane de ole
man so sure as you bane alive. And aye bat new hat he skall be
glad to see Neils Halvorsen. I guess aye hire Kanaka boy an' he
bane pull me out to see de ole man."

Which is exactly what Neils Halvorsen proceeded to do. Ten
minutes later he was at the foot of Fort Street, bargaining with
a Kanaka fisherman to paddle him off to the schooner _Maggie II_.
It was a beautiful moonlight night, and as Neils sat in the stern
of the canoe, listening to the sound of the sad, sweet falsetto
singing of half a dozen _waheenies_ fishing on the wharf, he
actually waxed sentimental. His honest Scandinavian heart
throbbed with anticipated pleasure as he conjured up a mental
picture of the surprise and delight of Captain Scraggs at this
unexpected meeting with his old deckhand.

A Jacob's ladder was hanging over the side of the schooner as the
canoe shot in under her lee quarter, and half a minute later the
expectant Neils stepped upon her deck. A tall dark man, wearing
an ancient palmleaf hat, sat smoking on the hatch coaming, and
him Neils H