Three months later Cappy Ricks sat alone in his office, his feet on
his desk, his old head bowed on his breast. Apparently he was having
a gentle snooze. Suddenly he sat up with the suddenness of a
jack-in-the-box and stepped to the door leading to Mr. Skinner's office.
“Skinner, my dear boy,” he said, “do you remember that stinking Humboldt
spruce I sawed off on Live Wire Luiz one day when you were out to
lunch?”
Mr. Skinner nodded.
“They claimed a rebate of six dollars a thousand on it,” he declared;
“and we declined to allow the claim. Well, I've decided to allow it,
Skinner. Tell Hankins to draw a check for the rebate in full and bring
it in to me. Send in a stenographer.”
Cappy clawed his whiskers as the stenographer took her seat at his desk.
“Ahem! Hum! Harumph-h-h!” he began. “Take letter.”
“Mr. J. Augustus Redell
“President West Coast Trading Co.
“Merchants' Exchange Building, City.
“My dear Gus: Having waited for several weeks in the hope of meeting
you at the Bilgewater Club, to which, due to some mysterious reason,
you appear to have been excessively disloyal of late, I despair of the
delight of a personal interview and am accordingly writing you.
“You will recall that jag of odoriferous spruce your excitable partner
was chump enough to buy from the Ricks Lumber & Logging Company. On
the receipt this morning of a communication from my exceedingly capable
representative in Papeete I came to the conclusion that I could afford
to allow the rebate claimed by the excessively sour-balled Senor
Almeida, and accordingly I am inclosing herewith, to the order of your
company, the Ricks Lumber & Logging Company's check for $536.12.
“I also beg to tender you my assurance that if I have seemed in the
past to cherish an unchristian resentment of that little deal in grape
stakes, the memory of the outrage no longer rankles in my bosom. For
you, my dear young friend, I entertain the kindliest, the most paternal
of feelings. I have not only forgiven, but I have also forgotten; for my
honor is clear again and I figure I can pretty blamed well afford myself
the luxury.
“Regarding that steamer _Valkyrie_, please be advised that the next
steamer to Australia, via Papeete and Raratonga, will carry a Blue Star
flag and my instructions to our representative to have it tacked to the
main truck of the _Valkyrie_ as she dies submerged in the harbor.
Since I assume you will be interested in learning the details of our
acquisition of the steamer in question, and since, further, I cannot
see that I have anything to lose by withholding this interesting
information, please be advised that we bought her in for twenty-two
thousand five hundred dollars.
“I fear you will be inclined to doubt this and accuse me of romancing
for the purpose of dropping more salt in a wound still fresh and
bleeding; but I assure you such a suspicion would be a grave injustice
to an old man whose portion from you should be pity, not opprobrium.
“To begin, it was very easy--after we had you out of the way. Like a
sensible man, you knew you were licked and threw up the sponge to save
yourself unnecessary punishment. It has been my experience that only a
very wise man has sense enough to do that; consequently, despite your
youth and impetuosity, I seem to see the glimmer of a very brilliant
commercial future for the West Coast Trading Company.
“However, to the story: When Mike Murphy got down to Papeete he found
a couple of broken-down junk dealers hanging round--the kind of fellows
who would have been glad to bid in the vessel at a couple of thousand
dollars for the privilege of breaking her up for junk and gutting her
of her cargo. A little reflection convinced Captain Murphy that he could
eliminate these small fry and centre his attention on the Australian
steamship company; and he was aided in arriving at this conclusion by
your Mr. Jinks, whom he found glooming at the dock on the arrival of
the _Moana_ minus your handsome self. By the way, Mr. Jinks' action in
aiding and abetting Murphy, after discovering that his own company was
out of the running, was so sportsmanlike that, if you will kindly advise
me of the expense to which you were put in sending him to Papeete, we
will gladly send you our check to cover.
“It took the capable Murphy about an hour and a half to get the lay of
the land--and then he started to play his little game. In the rather
restricted society of Papeete Murphy played the fool. Every little while
he would apparently acquire a small jag and get very confidential. He
told everybody his business--in confidence--and everybody in Papeete
knew just how much he was going to bid on the wreck. Finally, the day
before the bids were to be opened--Murphy was waiting till the last
minute before filing his--the captain of the port got a wireless from
some adventurer down in Noumea, asking him to withhold the opening of
the bids till he could get up to Papeete and make a bid. Murphy had
already fooled away three weeks in Papeete and if the captain of the
port hearkened to the request from the man from Noumea it would mean a
wait of another three weeks. Consequently he awaited the next move with
interest.
“Well, Augustus, the captain of the port had the temerity to delay the
opening of the bids, and Murphy noticed that his competitor hired
an attorney and made a bitter and formal protest against the delay.
However, it looked to Murphy like they had made just a little bit too
much noise--so he hired an attorney and made a lot of noise himself.
The captain of the port overruled both protests, however; and about that
time Murphy decided to put over a dirty Irish trick. He announced
he could see very clearly there was a move on to double-cross the
legitimate bidders and that he wasn't going to hang round any longer.
The _Timaru_ was due the next day, so he and Jinks engaged passage to
San Francisco on her; and, just before he left, Murphy went up to the
bank and drew eighteen thousand dollars on his letter of credit.
“He got a certificate of deposit in his own name, and that same
afternoon his attorney filed a sealed bid with the captain of the port.
“Now I had suspected there might be a leak from that French bank in
favor of the Australian; so I had taken care to have it advised by the
Marine National here that the latter bank had issued a letter of credit
for twenty-five thousand dollars to Captain Murphy. Therefore, the
Papeete bank very naturally concluded that twenty-five thousand dollars
was all the money Murphy had with him! And when he drew eighteen
thousand dollars on it they thought they knew the exact amount of his
bid; they thought, also, he had made a bid, in view of the fact that his
attorney filed one the same afternoon. At any rate, the news reached the
Australian and he withdrew his bid and substituted another. Since he
was the possessor of straight inside information as to the amount of his
single competitor's bid, he saw no reason why he should waste money;
so he bid four thousand pounds, or approximately nineteen thousand five
hundred dollars. They say he felt pretty sore when the bids were opened
and the _Valkyrie_ went to Miss Matilda Keenan for twenty-two thousand
five hundred dollars.
“Miss Keenan, by the way, is Skinner's stenographer. Murphy was only the
decoy. She carried the real bank roll and nobody suspected her; in fact,
Murphy was so certain of his prey he didn't even bid! He tells me the
_Valkyrie_ is really a gift, and that, at the widest possible estimate
of salvage cost, the Blue Star Navigation Company has purchased, for
two hundred thousand dollars, a four-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar
ship--thanks to you!
“With kindest regards, and again assuring you of the pleasure I have
always taken in our friendship--a friendship which, I trust, nothing
will ever disrupt--I am
“Cordially and sincerely--”
Cappy paused and gazed at the stenographer appraisingly.
“Read that over again, my dear young lady,” he commanded.
The girl complied and Cappy nodded his satisfaction.
“You and Mr. Skinner get along all right?” he queried.
“Oh, yes, sir.”
“I'm very glad to hear that. You've been substituting for Miss Keenan,
haven't you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, you can have the job for keeps if you want it. You suit me. Take
letter: 'Miss M. Keenan--' I called her Matilda, but her name's Mary; so
let it go at that.
“My dear Miss Keenan: Captain Murphy arrived on the _Timaru_, with the
information that he had taken a chance and left our affairs in the laps
of the gods and the capable hands of his understudy. It has been pretty
tough sledding waiting for the next Australian steamer, but, thank God!
she made port yesterday and your report of the success of your mission
is before me. I thank you. Yen're a good girl, and I am very happy to
learn of your engagement to Captain Murphy. He is a splendid fellow and
I am sending him back to Papeete in command of our _Amelia Ricks_, which
has been fitted up as a wrecker, to raise the _Valkyrie_. You had better
wait in Papeete and marry him there, as I am opposed to long engagements
among my employees; and Michael will do better and faster work if he
settles all his personal worries before tackling those of the Blue Star
Navigation Company.
“On his return with the _Valkyrie_ I shall make him port captain of the
Blue Star Fleet, which job will keep him home nights. And since, by
his ingenuity, he succeeded in purchasing for twenty-two thousand five
hundred dollars a piece of property for which I was prepared to pay as
high as seventy-five thousand dollars, for your wedding present I
shall allot you and Captain Murphy a ten-thousand-dollar piece of the
_Valkyrie_. It should earn you thirty per cent and make you independent
in your old age.
“Very sincerely--”
Cappy Ricks ceased dictating and clawed his whiskers reflectively.
“Yes,” he murmured irrelevantly; “I guess that's considerable of a
knock-out from an old fogy who's lost his punch!”
Then, to the stenographer:
“That will be all, my dear. As you pass through the general office
tell those fellows out there that I've gone into executive session with
myself and am not to be disturbed unless it's something very important.
I've got to decide which one of our skippers to promote into the
_Valkyrie_ when we get her up and I must think up a new name for her.
I think I'll call her the J. H. Skinner. Skinner's a little slow on his
feet, but he means well and he's old enough to have a ship named after
him.”