an' besides this business is just
between us three."

"Meetin'll come to order." The commodore tapped the hot deck
with his bare heel twice. "Haul away, Mac."

"I move you, gentlemen, that it be the sense o' this meetin' that
B. McGuffey, Esquire, be an' he is hereby app'inted a committee
o' one to lam the everlastin' daylights out o' that sinful former
chief mate o' ourn for abandonin' the syndicate to a horrible
death on that there desert island. Do I hear a second to that
motion?"

"Second the motion," chirped Captain Scraggs.

"The motion's denied," announced Mr. Gibney firmly.

"Now, looky here, Gib, that ain't fair. Didn't you fight
Tabu-Tabu an' didn't Scraggsy fight the king o' Kandavu? I ain't
had no fightin' this entire v'yage an' I did cal'late to lick
that doggone mate."

"Mac, it can't be done nohow."

"Oh, it can't, eh? Well, I'll just bet you two boys my interest
in the syndicate----"

"It ain't that, Mac, it ain't that. Nobody's doubtin' your
natural ability to mop him up. But it ain't policy. You wasn't
sore agin them cannibal savages, was you? You made Neils go back
an' save 'em, an' it took us two days to beat up to the first
inhabited island an' drop 'em off----"

"But a cannibal's like a dumb beast, Gib. He ain't responsible.
This mate knows better. He's as fly as they make 'em."

"Ah!" Mr. Gibney levelled a horny forefinger at the engineer.
"That's where you hit the nail on the head. He's too fly, and
there's only two ways to keep him from flyin' away with us. The
first is to feed him to the sharks and the second is to treat
him like a long-lost brother. I know he ought to be hove
overboard, but I ain't got the heart to kill him in cold blood.
Consequently, we got to let the villain live, an' if you go to
beatin' him up, Mac, you'll make him sore an' he'll peach on us
when we get to Honolulu. If us three could get back to San
Francisco with clean hands, I'd say lick the beggar an' lick him
for fair. But we got to remember that this mate was one o' the
original filibuster crew o' the old _Maggie I_. The day we
tackled the Mexican navy an' took this power schooner away from
'em, we put ourselves forty fathom plumb outside the law, an'
this mate was present an' knows it. We've changed the vessel's
name an' rig, an' doctored up the old _Maggie's_ papers to suit
the _Maggie II_, an' we've give her a new dress. But at that,
it's hard to disguise a ship in a live port, an' the secret
ser