Part 33 (2/2)
”I move,” said the commodore, ”that we set Tabu-Tabu and the king down on the first inhabited island we can find. They've suffered enough. And I further move that we readjust the owners.h.i.+p of the _Maggie II_ Syndicate and cut the best Swede on earth in on a quarter of the profits.”
”Second the motion,” said McGuffey.
”Carried,” said Captain Scraggs.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The lookout on the power schooner _Maggie II_ had sighted Diamond Head before Commodore Adelbert P. Gibney, Captain Phineas P.
Scraggs, and Engineer Bartholomew McGuffey were enabled to declare, in all sincerity (or at least with as much sincerity as one might reasonably expect from this band of roving rascals), that they had entirely recovered from their harrowing experiences on the desert island of Tuvana-tholo, in the Friendly group.
At the shout of ”Land, ho!” Mr. McGuffey yawned, stretched himself, and sat up in the wicker lounging chair where he had sprawled for days with Mr. Gibney and Captain Scraggs, under the awning on top of the house. He flexed his biceps reflectively, while his companions, stretched at full length in their respective chairs, watched him lazily.
”As a member o' the _Maggie_ Syndicate an' ownin' an' votin' a quarter interest,” boomed the engineer, ”I hereby call a meetin'
o' the said syndicate for the purpose o' transactin' any an' all business that may properly come before the meetin'.”
”Pa.s.s the word for Neils Halvorsen,” suggested Mr. Gibney. ”Bless his squarehead soul,” he added.
”We got a quorum without him, an' besides this business is just between us three.”
”Meetin'll come to order.” The commodore tapped the hot deck with his bare heel twice. ”Haul away, Mac.”
”I move you, gentlemen, that it be the sense o' this meetin' that B. McGuffey, Esquire, be an' he is hereby app'inted a committee o' one to lam the everlastin' daylights out o' that sinful former chief mate o' ourn for abandonin' the syndicate to a horrible death on that there desert island. Do I hear a second to that motion?”
”Second the motion,” chirped Captain Scraggs.
”The motion's denied,” announced Mr. Gibney firmly.
”Now, looky here, Gib, that ain't fair. Didn't you fight Tabu-Tabu an' didn't Scraggsy fight the king o' Kandavu? I ain't had no fightin' this entire v'yage an' I did cal'late to lick that doggone mate.”
”Mac, it can't be done nohow.”
”Oh, it can't, eh? Well, I'll just bet you two boys my interest in the syndicate----”
”It ain't that, Mac, it ain't that. n.o.body's doubtin' your natural ability to mop him up. But it ain't policy. You wasn't sore agin them cannibal savages, was you? You made Neils go back an' save 'em, an' it took us two days to beat up to the first inhabited island an' drop 'em off----”
”But a cannibal's like a dumb beast, Gib. He ain't responsible.
This mate knows better. He's as fly as they make 'em.”
”Ah!” Mr. Gibney levelled a h.o.r.n.y forefinger at the engineer.
”That's where you hit the nail on the head. He's too fly, and there's only two ways to keep him from flyin' away with us. The first is to feed him to the sharks and the second is to treat him like a long-lost brother. I know he ought to be hove overboard, but I ain't got the heart to kill him in cold blood.
Consequently, we got to let the villain live, an' if you go to beatin' him up, Mac, you'll make him sore an' he'll peach on us when we get to Honolulu. If us three could get back to San Francisco with clean hands, I'd say lick the beggar an' lick him for fair. But we got to remember that this mate was one o' the original filibuster crew o' the old _Maggie I_. The day we tackled the Mexican navy an' took this power schooner away from 'em, we put ourselves forty fathom plumb outside the law, an'
this mate was present an' knows it. We've changed the vessel's name an' rig, an' doctored up the old _Maggie's_ papers to suit the _Maggie II_, an' we've give her a new dress. But at that, it's hard to disguise a s.h.i.+p in a live port, an' the secret service agents o' the Mexican government may be a-layin' for us in San Francisco; and with this here mate agin us an' ready to turn state's evidence, we're pirates under the law, an' it don't take much imagination to see three pirates swingin' from the same yard-arm. No, sir, Mac. I ain't got no wish, now that we're fixed nice an' comfortable with the world's goods, to be hung for a pirate in the mere shank o' my youth. Why, I ain't fifty year old yet.”
”By the tail o' the Great Sacred Bull,” chattered Scraggs. ”Gib's right.”
McGuffey was plainly disappointed. ”I hadn't thought o' that at all, Gib. I been cheris.h.i.+n' the thought o' lammin' the whey out'n that mate, but if you say so I'll give up the idee. But if bringin' the _Maggie II_ into home waters is invitin' death, what in blue blazes're we goin' to do with her?”
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