boat."

"I'm just about to tell you, Scraggs. You don't touch a thing
aboard the _Maggie_. You leave her out of it entirely. You just
jump overboard, like me an' Mac will in a jiffy, swim over to the
bark, climb aboard, and sail her in to San Francisco Bay. When
you get there you drop anchor an' call it a day's work." He
grinned broadly. "One o' these bright days, Scraggs, when me an'
Mac is just wallerin' in salvage money, drop around to see us an'
we'll give you a kick in the face. Farewell, you boobs," and he
dove overboard.

"Ta-ta," McGuffey cried in his tantalizing falsetto voice, and
followed his leader into the briny deep. As they came up and
snorted, grampus-like, shaking the water out of their eyes, they
glanced back at the _Maggie_ and observed that Captain Scraggs
was, for the third time that never-to-be-forgotten voyage,
jumping on his hat.

"If I was that far gone in a habit," quoth Mr. McGuffey as he
hauled up alongside Mr. Gibney, "I'll be switched if I wouldn't
go bareheaded an' save expenses."




CHAPTER XII


The tide was still at the flood and the two adventurers made fast