the Fatherland and offer no objection--"

"I see," Cappy Ricks interrupted. "And if, on the other hand, the
German admiral says, 'Send a jag of coal to meet us in a certain
latitude and longitude off the River Plate,' and Mike Murphy objects,
that German crew on our _Narcissus_ will just naturally lock Mike
Murphy up in his cabin and take the vessel away from him! When they're
through with her they'll give her back--"

"I'm not so certain they'll have to lock him up in his cabin in order
to get the ship," Mr. Skinner struck in, a note of alarm in his voice.
"Mike Murphy is so pro-German--"

"Ow! Wow! That hurts," Cappy wailed. "So he is! I never thought of
that. And now that you speak of it, I recall it was his idea, getting
that crew of Germans aboard! He said it would cut down expenses. Holy
mackerel, Matt; do you think it was a frameup?"

"Certainly I do, but--Mike Murphy wasn't in on it. You can bank on
that. No piratical foreigner will ever climb up on Mike Murphy's deck
except over Mike Murphy's dead body. According to the president
emeritus there is more than one kind of Irish, but I'll guarantee Mike
Murphy isn't the double-crossing kind."

A boy entered with a telegram. It was a day letter filed by Mike
Murphy in Norfolk that morning, and Matt Peasley read it aloud:

"Sailing at noon. Regret your failure take me into your confidence
when deciding withdraw vessel from neutral trade. If orders send me to
either of ports named in charter party and I am overhauled _en route_,