"But them was the days! Me an' Bull McGinty was the two finest
men north or south of the Line. We was worth six ordinary white
men each, and twenty blacks, and we was respected. I first met
Bull McGinty in Shanghai Nelson's boarding house, over in Oregon
Street, not three blocks from where we're settin' now. I was
twenty years old an' holdin' a second mate's ticket, for I'd been
battin' around the world on clipper ships since I was fourteen,
an' I'd bit my way to the front quicker than most. Bull was a big
dark man, edgin' up onto the thirty mark. His great grandmother'd
been a half-breed Batavian nigger, and his father was Irish. Bull
himself was nothin', havin' been born at sea, a thousand miles
from the nearest land. However, that ain't got nothin' to do with
the story. Bull McGinty was skipper an' owner of the schooner
_Dashin' Wave_, 258 tons net register, when I met him in Shanghai
Nelson's place. Also he was broke, with the _Dashin' Wave_ lyin'
out in the stream off Mission Rock with a Honolulu Chinaman
aboard as crew and watchman, while Bull hustled around shore
tryin' to raise funds to outfit her for another trip to the
Islands. He'd been beachcombin' ten days when I met him, and we
took to each other right off.

"'Gib,' says Bull McGinty, 'I like you an' if I ever get money
enough to provision the _Dashin' Wave_, pay the clearance fee,
and put a thousand or two of trade aboard her, you must come mate
with me and if you should have a little money by, enough to fix
us up, I'll not only give you the mate's berth, but I'll put you
in on half the lay.'

"'Done,' says I. 'I ain't got ten cents Mex to my name, but I'll
outfit that vessel an' get her to sea inside two weeks, or my