The crews of the _Aphrodite_ and the _Bodega_ slept late also,
for they were weary, and fortunately, no calls for a tug came
into the office of the Red Stack Company all morning. About ten
o'clock Dan Hicks and Jack Flaherty breakfasted and about ten
thirty both met in the office. Apparently they were two souls
with but a single thought, 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 an' things is gone by
now. I left everything aboard an' had to borrow this outfit
from Scab Johnny." He grinned pathetically. "So I guess you
understand, Captain Hicks, just how bad I need that job I spoke
about a minute ago."
"I'll think it over, Mac, an' let you know," Hicks replied
evasively.
Mr. McGuffey, sensing his defeat, retired forthwith to hide his
embarrassment and distress; as the door closed behind him, Hicks
and Flaherty faced each other.
"Jack," quoth Dan Hicks, "can two towboat men, holdin' down two
hundred-dollar jobs an' presumed to have been out o' their
swaddlin' clothes for at least thirty years, afford to be laughed
off the San Francisco waterfront?"
"I know one of them that can't, Dan. At the same time, can a rat
like Phineas P. Scraggs and a beachcomber like his mate Gibney
make a pair of star-spangled monkeys out of said two towboat men
and get away with it?"
"They did that last night. Still, I've known monkeys that would
fight an' was human enough to settle a grudge. Follow me, Jack."
Together they repaired to Jackson Street bulkhead. Sure enough
there lay the _Maggie_, rubbing her blistered sides against the
bulkhead. Captain Scraggs was nowhere in sight, but Mr. Gibney
was at the winch, swinging ashore the crates of vegetables which
The Squarehead and three longshoremen loaded into the cargo net.
"We're outnumbered," Jack Flaherty whispered.
"Let's wait until she's unloaded an' Gibney an' Scraggs are
aboard alone."
They retired without having attracted the attention of Mr.
Gibney, and a few minutes later, Captain Scraggs came down the
bulkhead and sprang aboard.
"Well?" his navigating officer queried.
"Couldn't find him," Scraggs confessed. "Scab Johnny says he
loaned Mac a dry outfit an' the old boy dug out for breakfast at
seven o'clock an' ain't been around since."
"Did you try the saloons, Scraggsy?"
"I did. Likewise the cigar stands an' restaurants, an' the
readin' rooms of the Marine Engineers' Association."
"Guess he's out hustlin' a job," Mr. Gibney sighed. He was filled
with vague forebodings of evil. "If you'd only listened to my
advice last night, Scraggsy--if you'd only listened," he mourned.
"We'll cross our bridges when we come to them, Gib. Cheer up, my
boy, cheer up. I got a new engineer. He won't last, but he'll
last long enough for Mac to forget his grouch an' listen to
reason," and with this optimistic remark Captain Scraggs dropped
into the engine room to get up enough steam to keep the winch
working.
Promptly at twelve o'clock, the longshoremen knocked off work for
the lunch hour and Neils Halvorsen drifted across the street to
cool his parched throat with steam beer. While waiting for
Scraggs to come up out of the engine room, and take him to
luncheon, Mr. Gibney sauntered aft and was standing gazing
reflectively upon a spot on the _Maggie's_ stern where the
hawsers had chafed away the paint, when suddenly big forebodings
of evil returned to him a thousand fold stronger than they had
been since Scraggs's return to the little ship. He glanced up and
beheld gazing down upon him Captains Jack Flaherty and Daniel
Hicks. Battle was imminent and the valiant Gibney knew it;
wherefore he determined instantly to meet it like a man.
"Howdy, men," he saluted them. "Glad to have you aboard the
yacht," and he stepped backward to give himself fighting room.
"Here's where we collect the towage bill on the S.S. _Yankee
Prince_," Dan Hicks informed him, and leaped from the bulkhead
straight down at Mr. Gibney. Jack Flaherty followed. Mr. Gibney
welcomed Captain Hicks with a terrific right swing, which missed;
before he could guard, Dan Hicks had planted left and right where
they would do the most good and Mr. Gibney went into a clinch to
save himself further punishment.
"Scraggsy," he bawled, "Scraggsy-y-y! Help! Murder! It's Hicks
and Flaherty! Bring an ax!"
He flung Dan Hicks at Jack Flaherty; as they collided he rushed
in and dealt each of them a powerful poke. However, Messrs. Hicks
and Flaherty were sizeable persons and while, individually, they
were no match for the tremendous Gibney, nevertheless what they
lacked in horsepower they made up in pugnacity--and the salt sea
seldom breeds a craven. Captain Scraggs thrust a frightened face
up through the engine-room hatch, but at sight of the battle
royal taking place on the deck aft, his blood turned to water and
he thought only of escape. To climb up to the bulkhead without
being seen was impossible, however, so, not knowing what else to
do, he stood on the iron ladder and gazed, pop-eyed with horror,
at the unequal contest.
Backward and forward the tide of battle surged. For nearly three
minutes all Scraggs saw was an indistinct tangle of legs and
arms; then suddenly the combatants disengaged themselves and
Scraggs beheld Mr. Gibney lying prone upon the deck with a gory
face upturned to the foggy skies. When he essayed to rise and
continue the contest, Flaherty kicked him in the ribs and Hicks
cursed them; so Mr. Gibney, realizing that all was over, beat the
deck with his hand in token of surrender. Hicks and Flaherty
waited until the fallen gladiator had recovered sufficient breath
to sit up; then they pounced upon him, lifted him to the rail,
and dropped him overboard. Captain Scraggs shrieked in protest at
this added touch of barbarity, and Dan Hicks, turning, beheld
Scraggsy's white face at the hatch.
"You're next, Scraggs," he called cheerfully, and turned to peer
over the rail. Mr. Gibney had emerged on the surface and was
swimming slowly away toward an adjacent float where small boats
landed. He climbed wearily up on the float and sat there, gazing
across at Hicks and Flaherty without animus, for to his way of
thinking he had gotten off lightly, considering the enormity of
his offense. The least he had anticipated was three months in
hospital, and so grateful was he to Hicks and Flaherty for their
great forbearance that he strangled a resolve to "lay" for Hicks
and Flaherty and thrash them individually--something he was fully
able to do--and forgot his aches and pains in a lively interest
as to the fate of Captain Scraggs at the hands of the towboat
men. He was aware that Captain Scraggs had failed ignominiously
to rally to the Gibney appeal to repel boarders, and in his own
expressive terminology he hoped that what the enemy would do to
the dastard would be "a-plenty."
The enemy, meanwhile, had turned their attention upon Scraggs,
who had dodged below like a frightened rabbit and sought shelter
in the shaft alley. He had sufficient presence of mind, as he
dashed through the engine room, to snatch a large monkey wrench
off the tool rack on the wall, and, kneeling just inside the
alley entrance he turned at bay and threatened the invaders with
this weapon. Thereupon Hicks and Flaherty pelted him with lumps
of coal, but the sole result of this assault was to force Scraggs
further back into the shaft alley and out of range.
The towboat men held a council of war and decided to drown
Scraggs out. Dan Hicks ran up on deck and returned dragging
the deck fire hose behind him. He thrust the brass nozzle into
the shaft alley entrance and invited Scraggs to surrender
unconditionally or be drowned like a kitten. Scraggs, knowing his
own fire hose, defied them, so Dan Hicks started the pump while
Flaherty turned on the water. Instantly the hose burst up on deck
and Scraggs's jeers of triumph filled the engine room. The enemy
was about to draw lots to see which one of the two should crawl
into the shaft alley and throw a cupful of chloride of lime (for
they found a can of this in the engine room) in Captain Scraggs's
face, when a shadow darkened the hatch and Mr. Bartholomew
McGuffey demanded belligerently: "What's goin' on down there? Who
the devil's takin' liberties in my engine room?"
Dan Hicks explained the situation and the just cause for drastic
action which they held against the fugitive in the shaft alley.
Mr. McGuffey considered a few moments and made his decision.
"If what you say is true--an' I ain't in position to dispute you,
not havin' been present when you hauled the _Maggie_ off the
beach, I don't blame you for feeling sore. What I do blame you
for, though, is carryin' the war aboard the _Maggie_. If you
wanted to whale Gib an' Scraggsy you should ha' laid for 'em on
the dock. Under the circumstances, you make this a pers'nal
affair, an' as a member o' the crew o' the _Maggie_ I got to take
a hand an' defend my skipper agin youse two. Fact is, gentlemen,
I got a date to lick him first for what he done to me last night.
Howsumever, that's a private grouch. The fact remains that you
two jumped my pal Bert Gibney an' licked him somethin' scandalous.
Hicks, I'll take you on first. Come up out of there, you swab,
and fight. Flaherty, you stay below until I send for you; if you
try to climb up an' horn in on my fight with Hicks, Gibney'll brain
you."
A faint cheer came from the shaft alley. "Good old Mac.
At-a-boy!"
"You're on, McGuffey. Nobody ever had to beg me to fight him,"
Dan Hicks replied cordially, and climbed to the deck. To his
great surprise, Mr. McGuffey winked at him and drew him off to
the stern of the _Maggie_.
"There'll be no fight," he declared, "although we'll thud around
on deck an' yell a couple o' times to make Scraggs think we're
goin' to it. He figgers that by the time I've fought you an'
Flaherty I won't be fit for combat with him, even if I lick you
both; he's got it all figgered out that I'll wait a couple o'
days before tacklin' him, an' he thinks my temper'll cool by that
time an' he can argy me out o' my revenge. Savey?"
"I twig."
Mr. Gibney had returned to the _Maggie_ by this time and he now
took his station at the engine-room hatch and growled at Flaherty
and abused him. "Keep up your courage, Scraggsy," he called, as
Hicks and McGuffey pranced around the deck in simulated combat.
"Mac's whalin' the whey out o' Hicks an' Hicks couldn't touch him
with a buggy whip."
At the conclusion of the three minutes of horse-play, Mr.
McGuffey came to the hatch again. "Up with you, Flaherty," he
called loud enough for Captain Scraggs to hear, "up with you
before I go down after you."
Flaherty was about to possess himself of a hatchet when the face
of his confrère, Dan Hicks, appeared over McGuffey's shoulder and
grinned knowingly at him. Immediately, Flaherty hurled defiance
at his enemies and came up on deck, and once more to Captain
Scraggs came the dull sounds of apparent conflict overhead.
Suddenly a cheer broke from Mr. Gibney. "All off an' gone to
Coopertown, Scraggsy," he shouted. "Come up an' take a look at
the fallen."
Out of the shaft alley came Scraggs with a rush, tossing his
wrench aside the better to climb the ladder. He was half way up
when Mr. Gibney reached down a great hand, grasped him by the
collar, and whisked him out on deck with a single jerk. Here, to
his horror, he found himself confronted by a singularly scathless
trio who grinned triumphantly at him.
"Seein' is believin', Scraggs," Dan Hicks informed him. "That's a
lesson you taught me an' Flaherty last night, but evidently you
don't profit by experience. You're too miserable to beat up, but
just to show you it ain't possible for a dirty bay pirate like
you to skin the likes o' me an' Flaherty we purpose hangin' the
seat o' your pants up around your coat collar. Face him about,
Gibney."
Jack Flaherty raised his voice in song:
Glorious! Glorious!
One kick a piece for the four of us!
With a quick twist, Mr. Gibney presented Captain Scraggs for his
penance; Flaherty and McGuffey followed Dan Hicks promptly and
Captain Scraggs screamed at every kick. And now came Mr. Gibney's
turn. "For failin' to stand up like a man, Scraggsy, an' battle
Hicks an' Flaherty," he informed the culprit, and tossed him over
to McGuffey to be held in position for him.
"Don't, Gib. Please don't," Scraggs wailed. "It ain't comin' to
me from you. I never heard you callin' a-tall. Honest, I never,
Gib. Have mercy, Adelbert. You saved the _Maggie_ last night an'
a quarter interest in her is yours--if you don't kick me!"
Mr. Gibney paused, foot in mid-air; surveyed the _Maggie_ from
stem to stern, hesitated, licked his lower lip, and glanced at
the common enemy. For an instant it came into his mind to call
upon the valiant and able McGuffey to support him in a fierce
counter attack upon Hicks and Flaherty. Only for an instant,
however; then his sense of fair play conquered.
"No, Scraggsy," he replied sadly. "She ain't worth it, an' your
duplicity can't be overlooked. If there's anything I hate it's
duplicity. Here goes, Scraggsy--and get yourself a new navigatin'
officer."
Scraggs twisted and flinched instantly, and Mr. Gibney's great
boot missed the mark. "Ah," he breathed, "I'll give you an extra
for that."
"Don't! Please don't," Scraggs howled. "Lay off'n me an' I'll put
in a new boiler an' have the compass adjusted."
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Mr. McGuffey swung
him clear of Mr. Gibney's wrath. "Swear it," he hissed. "Raise
your right hand an' swear it--an' I'll protect you from Gib."
Captain Scraggs raised a trembling right hand and swore it. "I'll
get a new fire hose an' fire buckets; I'll fix the ash hoist and
run the bedbugs an' cockroaches out of her," he added.
"You hear that, Gib?" McGuffey pleaded. "Have a heart."
"Not unless he gives her a coat of paint an' quits bickerin'
about the overtime, Bart."
"I promise," Scraggs answered him. "Pervided," he added, "you an'
dear ol' Mac promises to stick by the ship."
"It's a whack," yelled McGuffey joyfully, and whirling, struck
Dan Hicks a mighty blow on the jaw. "Off our ship, you hoodlums."
He favoured Jack Flaherty with a hearty thump and swung again on
Dan Hicks. "At 'em, Scraggsy. Here's where you prove to Gib
whether you're a man--thump--or a mouse--thump--or a--thump,
thump--bobtailed--thump--rat."
Dan Hicks had been upset, and as he sprawled on his back on deck,
he appeared to Captain Scraggs to offer at least an even chance
for victory. So Scraggs, mustering his courage, flew at poor
Hicks tooth and toenail. His best was not much but it served to
keep Dan Hicks off Mr. McGuffey while the latter was disposing of
Jack Flaherty, which he did, via the rail, even as the towboat
men had disposed of Mr. Gibney. Dan Hicks followed Flaherty, and
the crew of the _Maggie_ crowded the rail as the enemy swam to
the float, crawled up on it and departed, vowing vengeance.
"All's well that ends well, gentlemen," Mr. McGuffey announced.
"Scraggsy's goin' to buy a drink an' the past is buried an'
forgotten. Didn't old Scraggsy put up a fight, Gib?"
"No, but he tried to, Mac. I'll tell the world he did," and he
thrust out the hand of forgiveness to Scraggsy, who, realizing he
had come very handsomely out of an unlovely situation, clasped
the hands of Mr. Gibney and McGuffey and burst into tears. While
Mr. McGuffey thumped him between the shoulder blades and cursed
him affectionately, Mr. Gibney retired to change into dry
garments; when he reappeared the trio went ashore for the
promised grog and a luncheon at the skipper's expense.