Part 12 (1/2)
”I had an idee that thwart would pull loose,” Mr. Gibney remarked, as he got up and rubbed the seat of his dungarees. ”If you'd had an ounce of sense, Scraggsy, you'd have saved twenty dollars an' rigged a watch-tackle, although even then the thwart would have come away, pullin' agin a vacuum that way. Well, you've lost a good skiff worth at least twenty-five dollars not to mention the two ash breezes that went with her. That helps some. What're you goin' to do now? Lay the _Maggie_ alongside the bark? I wouldn't if I was you. The sea's a mite choppy an' if you b.u.mp the _Maggie_ agin the bark she'll do one o' two things--stave in her topsides or b.u.mp that top-heavy deckload o' vegetables overboard.
An' if that happens,” he reminded Scraggs, ”you'll be doin' your bookkeepin' with red ink for quite a spell.”
”I ain't licked yet--not by a jugful,” Scraggs snapped.
”Halvorsen, haul down that signal halyard from the mizzenmast, take one end of it in your teeth, an' swim back to the _Maggie_ with it. We'll fasten a heavier line to the signal halyard, bend the other end of the heavy line to the cable, an' haul the cable aboard with the _Maggie's_ winch.”
”You say that so nice, Scraggsy, old hopeful, I'm tempted to think you can whistle it. Neils, he's only askin' you to risk your life overboard for nothing. 'Tain't in the s.h.i.+ppin' articles that a seaman's got to do that. If he wants a swimmin' exhibition make him pay for it--through the nose. An' if I was you, I'd find out how much o' this two thousand dollars' towage he's goin' to distribute to his crew. Pers'nally I'd get mine in advance.”
”Adelbert P. Gibney,” Captain Scraggs hissed. ”There's such a thing as drivin' a man to distraction. Halvorsen, are you with me?”
”Aye bane--for saxty dollars. Hay bane worth a month's pay for take dat swim.”
”You dirty Scowegian ingrate. Well, you don't get no sixty dollars from me. Bear a hand and we'll drop the s.h.i.+p's work boat overboard. I guess you can tow a signal halyard to the _Maggie_, can't you, Neils?”
Neils could--and did. Within fifteen minutes the _Maggie_ was fast to her prize. ”Now we'll c.o.c.kbill the anchor,” quoth Captain Scraggs, so McGuffey reporting sufficient steam in the donkey to turn over the windla.s.s, the anchor was raised and c.o.c.kbilled, and the _Maggie_ hauled away on the hawser the instant Captain Scraggs signalled his new navigating officer that the hook was free of the bottom.
”The old girl don't seem to be makin' headway in the right direction,” McGuffey remarked plaintively, after the _Maggie_ had strained at the hawser for five minutes. Mr. Gibney, standing by with a hammer in his hand, nodded affirmatively, while the skipper of the _Chesapeake_, whom Mr. Gibney had had the forethought to carry out on deck to watch the operation, glanced apprehensively ash.o.r.e. Scraggs measured the distance with his eye to the nearest fringe of surf and it was plain that he was worried.
”Captain Scraggs,” the skipper of the _Chesapeake_ called feebly, ”Mr. Gibney is right. That craft of yours is unable to tow my s.h.i.+p against this wind. You're losing ground, inch by inch, and it will be only a matter of an hour or two, if you hang on to me, before I'll be in the breakers and a total loss. You'll have to get sail on her or let go the anchor until a tug arrives.”
”I don't know a thing about a sailin' s.h.i.+p,” Scraggs quavered.
”I know it all,” Mr. Gibney cut in, ”but there ain't money enough in the world to induce me to exercise that knowledge to your profit.” He turned to the master of the _Chesapeake_. ”For one hundred dollars each, McGuffey an' I will sail her in for you, sir.”
”I'll not take the risk, Mr. Gibney. Captain Scraggs, if you will follow my instructions we'll get some sail on the _Chesapeake_.
Take those lines through the leading blocks to the winch----”
The engineer of the _Maggie_ came up on deck and waved his arms wildly. ”Leggo,” he bawled. ”I've blown out two tubes. It'll be all I can do to get home without that tow.”
”Jump on that, Scraggsy,” quoth McGuffey softly and cast his silken engineer's cap on the deck at Scraggs's feet. The latter's face was ashen as he turned to the skipper of the _Chesapeake_.
”I'm through,” he gulped. ”I'll have to cast off. Your s.h.i.+p's drivin' on to the beach now.”
”Oh, say not so, Scraggsy,” said Mr. Gibney softly, and with a blow of the hammer knocked out the stopper on the windla.s.s and let the anchor go down by the run. ”Not this voyage, at least.”
The _Chesapeake_ rounded up with a jerk and Mr. Gibney took Captain Scraggs gently by the arm. ”Into the small boat, old ruin,” he whispered, ”and I'll row you an' The Squarehead back to the _Maggie_. If she drifts ash.o.r.e with that load o' garden truck, you might as well drown yourself.”
Captain Scraggs was beyond words. He suffered himself to be taken back to the _Maggie_, after which kindly action Mr. Gibney returned to the _Chesapeake_, climbed aboard, and with the a.s.sistance of McGuffey, hauled the work boat up on deck.
CHAPTER XIII
”Now,” Mr. Gibney inquired, approaching the skipper of the _Chesapeake_, ”what'll you give me an' Mac, sir, to sail you in?
Has it dawned on you, sir, that if I hadn't had sense enough to c.o.c.kbill that anchor again you'd be on the beach this minute?”
”One thousand dollars,” the skipper answered weakly.
”You refused to let us do it for a hundred. Now it'll cost you two thousand, an' I'm lettin' you off cheap at that. Of course, you can take a chance an' wait until word o' your predicament sifts into San Francisco an' a tug comes out for you, but in the meantime the wind may increase an' with the tide at the flood how do you know your anchor won't drag an' pile you up on them rocks to leeward?”
”I'll pay two thousand, Mr. Gibney.”