Cappy Ricks | Page 7

and reimburse you for
the expense of bringing his successor down from Seattle or up from
San Francisco. My two mates have just asked to be paid off, and
despite the fact that they have signed articles, I've let them go. No use
going to sea with a pair of sulky mates, you know. Fortunately, I had a
young Down-Easter aboard and I've put him in as first mate--"
"Noah," urged McBride. "I wouldn't advise you to take this man
Murphy."
"Beggars can't be choosers," Captain Noah replied mournfully. "The
tide serves in half an hour and the tug is alongside the Retriever now. If
I have to wire to Seattle for a second mate I may not be able to get
one--and if I am forced to wire to San Francisco I may be stuck here a
week. I've shipped my crew and paid them all in advance, and if I don't
get to sea in an hour I'll lose every man Jack of them, and have it all to
do over again."
"Well, I'll speak to the fellow for you, Noah," McBride suggested, and
darted out of the cabin to interview the said Murphy. Two minutes later
he was back.
"Sorry, Noah, but Murphy says he wouldn't sign up for a trip to Cape
Town at chief mate's wages."
"I'm sorry, too, Mac," Captain Noah answered resignedly. "I'm sorry
you're such a liar. My grief is only compensated by the knowledge that
Murphy is not aboard the Nokomis at this minute, and, if you did any
talking while you were out on deck a minute ago you must have talked
to yourself. Do I get this man, Murphy and thus save the Blue Star
Navigation Company five hundred dollars or must I wire Cappy Ricks
to wire you to do your duty by the company?"
"You infernal thief," shouted McBride, "you're taking the best second
mate I've had in years."
"Never mind that. Do I get Mike Murphy peaceably or--"

"You've got him already" McBride charged.
"You're better at telling the truth than you are at lying, Angus McBride.
You'll have plenty of time to get a second mate while the Nokomis is
loading, and you can send the bill for his railroad fare to Cappy Ricks
and tell him to charge it to the Retriever."
McBride tried to appear aggrieved, but failed. He burst out laughing,
and reached for the locker in which he kept the schooner's supply of
grog.
"Would it was prussic acid," he growled.
"Don't say I went behind your back and stole your mate," Kendall
retorted. "And if your second mate is as poor as your whiskey," he
added, piling insult on to injury, "you can have him back when I return
from Cape Town."
Matt Peasley felt that he was going to like Michael J. Murphy. The
latter was Irish, but he had left Ireland at a very tender age and was, to
all intents and purposes, a breezy American citizen, and while he wore
a slight cauliflower in one ear, his broad, kindly humorous face and
alert, bustling manner was assurance that he would be an easy man to
get along with. When the Old Man introduced him to Matt, he extended
a horny right hand that closed on Matt's like the jaws of a dredger, the
while he ran an equally horny left hand up and down the chief mate's
arm.
"I'm sure we'll get along famously together, Mr. Murphy," Matt
suggested.
Again Mr. Murphy ran his hand over that great arm.
"You know it!" he declared with conviction.
Captain Noah laughed aloud, and as Matt scampered forward over the
deckload, herding his savages before him, to receive the tug's breast
line and make it fast on the bitts the skipper turned to Mr. Murphy.

"There's a lad for you," he declared.
"He has manners and muscle, and those are two things that seldom go
together," Mr. Murphy rejoined. "He's Down-Easter, I see. Did Cappy
Ricks send him to you, sir?"
"No--not that he wouldn't, however, if he'd ever met the boy. The crimp
brought him aboard with the sweepings and scrapings of San
Francisco."
"I hope he wasn't drunk--like the rest," Mr. Murphy answered
anxiously. "'Twould be a sin to desecrate that lovely body with
whiskey."
"He was bung up and bilge free--and that's why he's chief kicker now.
The hawser's fast for'd, Mr. Murphy. Cast off your stern line."
"All clear for'd, sir," Matt Peasley's shout came ranging down the wind,
and the tug snatched the big barkentine out from the mill dock into the
stream where she cast her off, put her big towing hawser aboard, paid it
out and started for Grays Harbor bar.
CHAPTER IV
BAD NEWS FROM CAPE TOWN
On a certain day in February Mr.