Gibney's classic features when the shells from the Maxim-Vickers
gun exploded in his immediate neighbourhood, and as he naïvely
remarked to Bartholomew McGuffey, he was in luck to be alive.

McGuffey surveyed his superior officers, cursed them bitterly,
and remarked, with tears of joy in his honest eyes, that both
gentlemen had evaded their just deserts when they escaped with
their lives. "If it hadn't been for the mate," said McGuffey
severely, "I'd 'a' let you two boobies suffer the penalty for
your foolishness. Any man that goes to work and fraternizes with
a cannibal ain't got no kick comin' if he's made up into chicken
curry with rice. The minute I hear old Scraggsy yippin' for help,
says I to myself, 'let the beggars fight their own way out of the
mess.' But the mate comes a-runnin' up and says he's pretty sure
he can come near plantin' a mess of shells in the centre of the
disturbance, even if we can't see the wari on account of the
jungle. 'It's all off with the commodore and the skipper anyhow,'
says the mate, 'so we might just as well have vengeance on their
murderers.' So, of course, when he put it that way I give my
consent----"

At this juncture the mate, passing around McGuffey on his way to
the deck, winked solemnly at Mr. Gibney, who hung his war-worn
head in simulated shame. When the mate had left the cabin the
commodore pounded with his fork on the cabin table and announced
a special meeting of the _Maggie II_ Syndicate.

"The first business before the meeting," said Mr. Gibney, "is to
readjust the ownership in the syndicate. Me and Scraggsy's had
our heads together, Mac, and we've agreed that you've shot your