y sight. I've delivered my
freight alongside your steamer and prepaid the freight an' it's
up to you to handle it."

"Gib!"

"That's the programme!"

"Adelbert," crooned Mr. McGuffey, "ain't you got no heart? You
know I got a half interest in the _Victor_----"

"O-oo-oh!" Captain Scraggs groaned, and his groan was that of a
seasick passenger. When he could look up again his face was
ghastly with misery.

"Gib," he pleaded sadly, "you got us where the hair is short.
Don't invoke the law an' make us handle that codfish, Gib! It
ain't right. Gimme leave to tow that barge--anything to keep your
freight off the _Victor_, an' we'll pull it up river for you----"

"Be a good feller, Gib. You usen'ter be hard an' spiteful like
that," urged McGuffey.

"I'll tow the barge free," wailed Scraggs.

Mr. Gibney sat calmly down on the stringer and lit a cigar.
Nature had blessed him with a strong constitution amidships and
the contiguity of his tainted fortune bothered him but little. He
squinted over the tip of the cigar at Captain Scraggs.

"You're just the same old Scraggsy you was in the green-pea
trade. All you need is a ring in yer nose, Scraggsy, to make you
a human hog. Here you goes to work an' soaks me a dollar a ton
when you'd be tickled to death to do the job for half o' that,
an' then you got the gall to stand there appealin' to my
friendship! So you'll tow the barge up free, eh? Well, just to
make the transaction legal, I'll give you a dollar for the job
an' let you have the barge. Skip to it, Scraggsy, an' draw up a
new bill, guaranteein' to tow the barge for one dollar. Then
gimme back $499.00 an' I'll hand you back this receipted freight
bill."

Captain Scraggs darted into his cabin, dashed off the necessary
document, and returning to the deck, presented it, together with
the requisite refund, to Mr. Gibney, who, in the meantime, had
come aboard.

"Whatever are you a-goin' to do with this awful codfish, Gib?" he
demanded.

Mr. Gibney cocked his hat over one ear and blew a cloud of smoke
in the skipper's face.

"Well, boys, I'll tell you. Salted codfish that's been under
water a long time gets most o' the salt took out of it, an' even
at sea, if it's left long enough, it'll get so durned ripe that
it's what you might call offensive. But it makes good fertilizer.
There ain't nothin' in the world to equal a dead codfish, medium
ripe, for fertilizer. I've rigged up a deal with a orchard
comp'ny that's