e schooner out.
But it was mercy thrown away, for the sharks got the three of them.

"I had brain fever or something after we got clear of the land. Anyway,
the DUCHESS lay hove to for three weeks, when I pulled myself together
and we jogged on with her to Sydney. Anyway those niggers of Malu
learned the everlasting lesson that it is not good to monkey with a
white man. In their case, Saxtorph was certainly inevitable."

Charley Roberts emitted a long whistle and said:

"Well I should say so. But whatever became of Saxtorph?"

"He drifted into seal hunting and became a crackerjack. For six years he
was high line of both the Victoria and San Francisco fleets. The seventh
year his schooner was seized in Bering Sea by a Russian cruiser, and all
hands, so the talk went, were slammed into the Siberian salt mines. At
least I've never heard of him since."

"Farming the world," Roberts muttered. "Farming the world. Well here's
to them. Somebody's got to do it--farm the world, I mean."

Captain Woodward rubbed the criss-crosses on his bald head.

"I've done my share of it," he said. "Forty years now. This will be my
last trip. Then I'm going home to stay."

"I'll wager the wine you don't," Roberts challenged. "You'll die in the
harness, not at home."

Captain Woodward promptly accepted the bet, but personally I think
Charley Roberts has the best of it.

THE SEED OF McCOY

The Pyrenees, her iron sides pressed low in the water by her cargo of
wheat, rolled sluggishly, and made it easy for the man who was climbing
aboard from out a tiny outrigger canoe. As his eyes came level with the
rail, so that he could see inboard, it seemed to him that he saw a dim,
almost indiscernible haze. It was more like an illusion, like a blurring
film that had spread abruptly over his eyes. He felt an inclination to
brush it away, and the same instant he thought that he was growing old
and that it was time to send to San Francisco for a pair of spectacles.

As he came over the rail he cast a glance aloft at the tall masts, and,
next, at the pumps. They were not working. There seemed nothing the
matter with the big ship, and he wondered why she had hoisted the signal
of distress. He thought of his happy islanders, and hoped it was not
disease. Perhaps the ship was short of water or provisions. He shook
hands with the captain whose gaunt face and care-worn eyes made no
secret of the trouble, whatever it was. At the same moment the new