McGinty an' the schooner _Dashin' 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 _Dashin' 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 ship 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 crashing
crescendo; his teeth clicked together and he shook his skinny
fist under the great Gibney nose. Gibney paled and drew away from
him.

"How was I to know, Scraggsy?" he faltered. "The whole bunch was
runts--sickly, measly little fellers. Nevertheless an' agin, you
shouldn't ought to have any kick comin'. You had a fine trip an'
a heap of adventure an' me an' Bull paid your passage back to San
Francisco. Come, Scraggs. Be sensible. What's the use holdin' a
grudge after twenty-five years?"

"Oh, I ain't holdin' a grudge, exactly, Gib, my boy. I admit I