"The Harlow & Benton Company, Limited."

"Cable them for confirmation of the mate's message, and request them
to have Cap'n Noah's body embalmed and shipped to Port Townsend,
Washington, prepaid, deducting charges from our invoice."



CHAPTER V

MATT PEASLEY ASSUMES OFFICE


The death of Captain Noah Kendall, while profoundly deplored by his
next in command, first mate Matthew Peasley, had not been permitted by
that brisk young man to interfere in the least with the task of
getting the cargo out of the Retriever, for sailoring, like
soldiering, is a profession in which sentiment is a secondary
consideration. Each day of demurrage to a ship like the Retriever,
even at the prevailing low freight rate, meant a loss of at least a
hundred dollars to the owners, and since navigating a ship safely and
expeditiously is the least of a good skipper's duties, and since,
further, Matt Peasley was determined to be a skipper in the not very
distant future, he concluded to give his owners evidence of the fact
that he was, in addition to being a navigator, also a first-class
"hustler." If the Retriever made a loss on that voyage he was
resolved that no blame should attach to him.

"Skipper's dead, Mike," he announced to Mr. Murphy, the second mate.