tub that couldn't get out of its own way."

"How were we to know till we tried her?" Nicholas asked, so
innocently as to cause a laugh. "And how do you get the oysters?"
he hurried on. "We want a load of them; that's what we came for, a
load of oysters."

"What d'ye want 'em for?" demanded the Porpoise.

"Oh, to give away to our friends, of course," Nicholas retorted.
"That's what you do with yours, I suppose."

This started another laugh, and as our visitors grew more genial we
could see that they had not the slightest suspicion of our identity
or purpose.

"Didn't I see you on the dock in Oakland the other day?" the
Centipede asked suddenly of me.

"Yep," I answered boldly, taking the bull by the horns. "I was
watching you fellows and figuring out whether we'd go oystering or
not. It's a pretty good business, I calculate, and so we're going
in for it. That is," I hastened to add, "if you fellows don't
mind."

"I'll tell you one thing, which ain't two things," he replied, "and
that is you'll have to hump yerself an' get a better boat. We
won't stand to be disgraced by any such box as this. Understand?"

"Sure," I said. "Soon as we sell some oysters we'll outfit in