Part 16 (1/2)

In the course of an hour Gibney and McGuffey returned, and Scraggs met them as they leaped down on to the deck of the _Maggie_. ”Gentlemen,” he remarked--”an' at that I'm givin' you two all the best of it, even if you two have got a quit-claim deed that you ain't pirates--I wish to announce that if you two have come aboard my s.h.i.+p for the puppose o' havin' a little fun at my expense, I'm a-goin' to call the police an' have you arrested for disturbin' the peace. On the other hand an' futher, if your mission's a peaceful one, you're welcome aboard the _Maggie_. I may have a temper an' say things that sounds mighty harsh when I'm het up, but in my calmer moments my natural inclination is to be a sport.”

”Scraggsy, old hard-luck,” Mr. Gibney boomed, ”we won so we can afford to be generous in victory. Like you, me an' Mac is inclined to be uppish at times, particularly in the hour of triumph, an' say an' do things we're apt to be ashamed of later.”

”Them's my sentiments,” McGuffey chimed in.

”We ain't comin' aboard to beg you for no job,” Mr. Gibney warned. ”Git that idea out o' your head--if you got it there. Me an' Bart each got close to a thousand dollars in bank this minute an' we're as free an' independent as two hogs walkin' on ice. Any ol' time we can't stand up we can set down.”

Captain Scraggs was frankly mystified. ”If you two got a thousand dollars each in bank--an' I ain't disputin' it, for I hear on good authority you got that much for salvin' the _Chesapeake_--what're you hangin' around the _Maggie_ for?”

Mr. Gibney approached and placed his great right arm fraternally across Scraggs's skinny shoulder. Mr. McGuffey performed a similar office with his brawny left, and Captain Scraggs looked apprehensive, like a man who is about to be kissed by another in public.

”Scraggsy, when all is lovely an' the goose honks high, it's our great American privilege to fight like bearcats if we feel that way about it. But when misfortune descends on one of us, like a topmast in a typhoon, it's time to stop bickerin'. Me an' Bart, driftin' along the docks for a const.i.tootional this mornin', bears the sorrerful tidin's that your new navigatin' officer an'

your new engineer has quit. Judgin' from that shanty on your left eye, at least one of 'em quit under protest. Immediately, Scraggsy, me an' Mac decided you might hate our innards but just the same you needed us in your business. Consequently, we're here to help you if you'll let us an' for not another durned reason in the world.”

”There's four alleeged mechanics down in the engine room loafin'

on the job an' gettin' ready to soak you a dollar an' a half an hour overtime to-night an' Sunday,” McGuffey informed the skipper. ”An' that hurts me. I don't mind takin' a poke at you myself but I'll be shot if I'll stand idly by an' see somebody else do it. With your kind permission, Scraggs, I'll climb into my dungarees an' make things hum in that engine room.”

Captain Scraggs was truly affected. His weak chin trembled and tears came to his little mean green eyes. He could not speak; so Mr. Gibney hugged him and patted him on the back and told him he was a good fellow away down low, if the truth were only known; whereat Captain Scraggs commenced to sob aloud. McGuffey coughed and tears as big as marbles cascaded down the honest Gibney's rubicund countenance.

”I ain't wuth your sympathy after the way I treated you,” Captain Scraggs cried brokenly.

”Shet up, you little b.u.m,” Mr. Gibney cried furiously. ”Or I'll bang you in that other eye that's ready for bangin'.”

”If you're shy a few bucks----” McGuffey began.

”I am,” Captain Scraggs wailed. ”I'm worried to death. I don't know how I'm ever goin' to pay for that b.l.o.o.d.y boiler an' git to sea with the _Maggie_----”

”Little sorrel-top,” Mr. Gibney murmured, ruffling Scraggs's thin blonde hair. ”Forget them sordid monetary considerations. I'm somethin' like forty jumps ahead o' the devil an' ruination for the first time since me an' Bull McGinty organized the Brotherhood o'

the South Seas----”

”Leggo me,” snarled Captain Scraggs and springing back, he bent and looked earnestly into Mr. Gibney's happy countenance. ”Good land o' Goshen, if you ain't him!” Hate gleamed in his eyes.

”Ain't who, you shrimp!” Mr. Gibney was mystified at this abrupt change of att.i.tude.

Captain Scraggs blinked and pa.s.sed his hand wearily across his brow. ”Forgive me, Gib,” he answered humbly. ”I was sort o' took back, that's all.”

”Took back at what?”

”We won't say nothin' more about it, Gib, except that while I'd like to accept your kind offer an' put you back on the job again, I--I just can't bring myself to do it. I'll have to forget first.”

”Forget what? Bart, is Scraggsy gone nutty?”

”Out with it, Scraggs,” Mr. McGuffey urged. ”Spit it out, whatever it is.”

”I'd rather not, but since you ask me I suppose I might as well.

Gib, ever since me an' you first hooked up together, away back in the corner o' my head there's been lurkin' a suspicion that once before, a long time ago, you an' me have had some business dealin's, but for the life o' me I couldn't place you. One minute I'd just be a-staggerin' on the brink of memory, as the feller says, an' the next it'd slip away from me. But just now, when you mentioned Bull McGinty an' the Brotherhood o' the South Seas--well, Gib, it all come back to me like a flash. Bull McGinty an' the schooner _Das.h.i.+n' Wave_!” Captain Scraggs shook his head as if his thoughts threatened to congeal in his brain and he desired to shake them up. ”Bull had a dash o' the tar-brush in his make up, if I don't disremember, an' you was his young mate. Man, how funny you did look with them long red whiskers--an' you little more'n a boy.”

”Jumpin' Jehosophat, Scraggsy! Was you one o' the Brotherhood?”

Captain Scraggs came close and thrust his face up for Mr.

Gibney's inspection. ”Gib,” he said solemnly, ”look at me! Touch the cord o' memory an' think back. D'ye remember that pore little feller you robbed of five hundred dollars twenty-odd year ago in the schooner _Das.h.i.+n' Wave_? D'ye remember that typhoon we was in an' how, when I was that tuckered out an' so seasick I couldn't stand up, you made me pump s.h.i.+p an' when I protested, you stuck a horse pistol under my nose an' _made_ me? That man, Adelbert P.

Gibney was _me! Me! Me!_” Scraggs's voice rose in a cras.h.i.+ng crescendo; his teeth clicked together and he shook his skinny fist under the great Gibney nose. Gibney paled and drew away from him.