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Cappy Ricks Retires by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne
page 30 of 447 (06%)
profits--and they say Brazil is rather friendly to the German cause.
We will assume, therefore, that the German secret agents in this
country realize it is inevitable that Von Spee's fleet must be forced
into the Atlantic; hence, in anticipation of that extremity, they are
arranging for the delivery of coal to those harassed cruisers. The
agent in Pernambuco is probably in constant communication with the
fleet by wireless; the fleet will probably come ranging up the coast
of South America, destroying British commerce, or some of the ships
may cross over to the Indian Ocean and join the _Emden_, raiding in
those waters. So the German secret agents charter our huge
_Narcissus_, load her with ten thousand tons of coal--"

Matt Peasley paused and bent a beetling glance, first at Cappy Ricks
and then at Skinner.

"Was she to carry soft coal or anthracite?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Mr. Skinner quavered.

"Search me!" Cappy Ricks piped up sourly.

"I thought so. For the sake of argument we'll assume it's soft coal,
because anthracite has not as yet become popular as steamship fuel.
Well, we will assume our vessel gets to Pernambuco. If, in the
meantime, the German admiral wirelesses his Pernambuco agent, 'Send a
jag of coal into the Indian Ocean,' to the Indian Ocean goes the
_Narcissus_, and presently she finds a German warship or two or three
ranging along in her course. They pick her up, help themselves to her
coal, give Mike Murphy a certificate of confiscation for her cargo, to
be handed to the owners, who in this case will be good, loyal sons of
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