, for the right hand of each sought the
shelf whereon reposed the blue volume entitled "Lloyd's
Register." Dan Hicks reached it first, carried it to the counter,
wet his tarry index finger, and started turning the pages in a
vain search for the American steamer _Yankee Prince_. Presently
he looked up at Jack Flaherty.

"Flaherty," he said, "I think you're a liar."

"The same to you and many of them," Flaherty replied, not a whit
abashed. "You said she was an eight thousand ton tramp."

"I never went so far as to say I'd been aboard her on trial trip,
though--and I did cut down her tonnage, showin' I got the
fragments of a conscience left," Hicks defended himself.

He closed the book with a sigh and placed it back on the shelf,
just as the door opened to admit no less a personage than
Batholomew McGuffey, late chief engineer, first assistant, second
assistant, third assistant, wiper, oiler, water-tender, and
stoker of the S.S. _Maggie_. With a brief nod to Jack Flaherty
Mr. McGuffey approached Dan Hicks.

"I been lookin' for you, captain," he announced. "Say, I hear the
chief o' the _Aphrodite's_ goin' to take a three months' lay-off
to get shet of his rheumatism. Is that straight?"

"I believe it is, McGuffey."

"Well, say, I'd like to have a chance to substitoot for him. You
know my capabilities, Hicks, an' if it would be agreeable to you
to have me for your chief your recommendation would go a long way
toward landin' me the job. I'd sure make them engines behave."

"What vessel have you been on lately?" Hicks demanded cautiously,
for he knew Mr. McGuffey's reputation for non-reliability around
pay-day.

"I been with that fresh water scavenger, Scraggs, in the _Maggie_
for most a year."

"Did you quit or did Scraggs fire you?"

"He fired me," McGuffey replied honestly. "If he hadn't I'd have
quit, so it's a toss-up. Comin' in from Halfmoon Bay last night
we got lost in the fog an' piled up on the beach just below the
Cliff House----"

"This is interesting," Jack Flaherty murmured. "You say she
walked ashore on you, McGuffey? Well, I'll be shot!"

"She did. Scraggs blamed it on me, Flaherty. He said I didn't
obey the signals from the bridge, one word led to another, an' he
went dancin' mad an' ordered me off his ship. Well, it's his
ship--or it _was_ his ship, for I'll bet a dollar she's ground to
powder by now--so all I could do was obey. I hopped overboard
an' waded ashore. I suppose all my clothes