"There's one thing more that we mustn't neglect," warned Mr. Gibney
before the meeting broke up. "We've got to run this little vessel
into some dog-hole where there's a nice beach and smooth water, and
change her name. I notice that her old name _Reina Maria_ is screwed
into her bows and across her stern in raised gilt letters, contrary
to law and custom. We'll snip 'em off, sandpaper every spot where
there's a letter, and repaint it; after which we'll rig up a stagin'
over her bows and stern, and cut her new name, '_Maggie II_,' right
into her plankin'. Nobody'll ever suspect her name's been changed. I
notice that the official letters and numbers cut into her main beam
is F-C-P-9957. I'll change that F to an E, the C to an O, and the P
to an R. A handy man with a wood chisel can do lots of things. He
can change those nines to eights, the five to a six, and the seven
to a nine. I've seen it done before. Then we'll rig a foretopmast
and a spinnaker boom on her, and bend a fisherman's staysail.
Nothing like it when you're sailing a little off the wind. Scraggs,
you have the papers of the old _Maggie_, and we all have our
licenses regular enough. Dig up the old papers, Scraggsy, and I'll
doctor 'em up to fit the _Maggie II_. As for our armament, we'll
dismount the guns and stow 'em away in the hold until we get down on
the Colombian coast, and while we're lying in Panama repairing the
holes where my shots went through her, and puttin' new planks in her
decks where the old plankin' has been scored by shrapnel, those
paraqueets will think we're as peaceful as chipmunks. Better look
over your supplies, McGuffey, and see if there's any paint aboard.
I'd just as lief give the old girl a different dress before we drop
anchor in Panama."

"Gib," said Captain Scraggs earnestly, "I'll keel-haul and