Cappy Ricks Retires | Page 6

"Tip-top

serrvice for tip-top pay, an' by the Great Gun av Athlone, you'll get it
from me, sor. If ever the ship is lost 'twill be no fault of mine."
Mr. Reardon's manner, as he thus calmly exculpated himself from the
penalty for future disaster, indicated quite clearly that Cappy Ricks, in
such a contingency, might look to the man higher up--on the bridge, for
instance.
When Terence Reardon had departed Cappy Ricks called Mike Murphy
into the room.
"Now, captain," he began, "there are a few things I want to tell you.
This man Reardon is a fine, loyal fellow, but he's touchy--"
"I know all about him," Murphy interrupted with a slight emphasis on
the pronoun. Unlike Mr. Reardon he employed the third person singular
and did not say "that fella," for he had been raised in the United States
of America.
"I have already given the captain his instructions," Matt Peasley
announced. "He understands the situation perfectly and will conduct
himself accordingly."

CHAPTER III

A small army of men swarmed over, under and through the huge
Narcissus for the next three weeks, and the hearts of Cappy Ricks and
Matt Peasley were like to burst with pride as they stood on the bridge
with Captain Mike Murphy, while he ran the vessel over the measured
course to test her speed, and swung her in the bay while adjusting her
compass. She was as beautiful as money and paint could make her, and
when Terence Reardon, in calm disregard of orders, came up on the
bridge to announce his unbounded faith in the rejuvenated condensers
and to predict a modest coal bill for the future, Mike Murphy so far
forgot himself as to order the steward to bring up a bottle of something
and begged Mr. Reardon to join him in three fingers of nepenthe to
celebrate the occasion.
"T'ank you, sor, but I never dhrink--on djooty," Mr. Reardon retorted
with chill politeness, "nor," he added, "wit' me immejiate superiors."
A superficial analysis of this remark will convince the most sceptical

that Mr. Reardon, with true Hibernian adroitness, had managed to
convey an insult without seeming to convey it.
"Isn't that a pity!" the skipper replied. "We'll excuse you to attend to
your duty, Mr. Reardon;" and he bowed the chief toward the
companion leading to the boat deck. The latter departed, furious, with
an uncomfortable feeling of having been out-generaled; and once a
good Irishman and true has undergone that humiliation it is a safe bet
that the Dove of Peace has lost her tail feathers.
"That's an unmannerly chief engineer," Mike Murphy announced
blandly, "but for all that he's not without his good points. He'll not
waste money in his department."
"A virtue which I trust you will imitate in yours, captain," Cappy Ricks
snapped dryly. "Is Reardon working short-handed?"
"Only while we're loading, when he'll need just enough men to keep
steam up in the winches. When we go to sea, however, he'll have a full
crew, but the fun of it is they'll be non-union men with the exception of
the engineers and officers. The engineers will all belong to the Marine
Engineers' Association and the mates to Harbor 15, Masters' and Pilots'
Association."
"He'll do nothing of the sort," Matt Peasley declared quietly. "We have
union crews in all our other steamers, and the unions will declare a
strike on us if we put non-union men in the Narcissus."
"Of course--if they find out. But they'll not. Besides, we're going to the
Atlantic Coast, so why should we bring a high-priced crew into a
low-priced market, Mr. Ricks? Leave it to me, sir. I'll load the ship with
longshoremen entirely, and we'll sail with the crew of that German liner
that came a few days ago to intern in Richardson's Bay until the
European war is over."
"I'm not partial to the German cause," Matt Peasley announced. "So I'll
just veto that plan right now, Mike."
"Matt, we're neutral," Cappy declared.
"And it pays to ship those Germans, Matt," Murphy continued. "I
confess I'm for the Germans, although not to such an extent that I'd go
round offering them jobs just because they are Germans. But the
minute I heard about that interned boat I said to myself: 'Now, here's a
chance to save the Narcissus some money. The crew of that liner will
all be discharged now that she is interned. However, the local unions

will not admit them to membership and they cannot work on any
Pacific Coast boat unless they hold union cards. Consequently they
must seek other occupations, and as the chances are these fellows do
not speak English, they're up against it. Also, they are foreigners who
have paid no head tax when coming into the country, because they