"Ain't worth it! Why, man, I paid fifteen hundred hard cash dollars for her." "Fourteen hundred an' ninety-nine dollars an' ninety-nine cents too much. They seen you comin'. However, grantin' for the sake of argyment that she's worth the tow, the next question them towboat skippers'll ask is: 'Who's goin' to pay the bill?' It'll be two hundred an' fifty dollars at the lowest figger, an' if you got that much credit with the towboat company you're some high financier. Ain't that logic?" "I'm afraid," Scraggs replied sadly, "it is. Still, they'd have a lien on the _Maggie_----" "Steamer ahoy!" came a voice from the beach. "Man with a megaphone," Mr. Gibney cried. "Ahoy! Ahoy, there!" "Who are you an' what's the trouble?" Captain Scraggs took it upon himself to answer: "American steamer _Mag_----" Mr. Gibney sprang upon him tigerishly, placed a horny, tobacco-smelling palm across Scraggs's mouth and effectively smothered all further sound. "American steamer _Yankee Prince_," he bawled like a veritable Bull of Bashan, "of Boston, Hong Kong to Frisco with a general cargo of sandal wood, rice, an' silk. Where're we at?" "Just outside the Gate. Half a mile south o' the Cliff House." "Telephone in for a tug. We're in nice shape, restin' easy, but our rudder's gone an' the after web o' the crank shaft's busted. Telephone in, my man, an' I'll make it up to you when we get to a safe anchorage. Who are you?" "Lindstrom, of the Golden Gate Life Saving Station." "I'll not forget you, Lindstrom. My owners are Yankees, but they're sports." "All right. I'll telephone. On my way!" "God speed you," murmured Mr. Gibney, and released his hold on Captain Scraggs, who instantly threw his arms around the navigating officer's burly neck. "I forgive you, Adelbert," he crooned. "I forgive you freely. By the tail of the Great Sacred Bull, you're a marvel. She's an all-night fog or I'm a Chinaman, and if it only stays thick enough----" "It'll hold," Gibney retorted doggedly. "It's a tule fog. They always hold. Quit huggin' me. Your breath's bad. Them eggs, I guess." Captain Scraggs, hurled forcibly backward, bumped into the pilot house, but lost none of his enthusiasm. "You're a jewel," he declared. "Oh, man, what a head! Whatever made you think of the _Yankee Prince_?" "Because," Mr. Gibney answered calmly, "there ain't no such ship, this land of ours bein' a free republic where princes don't grow. Still, it's a nice name, Scraggs, old tarpot--more particular since I thought it up in a hurry. Eh, what?" "Halvorsen," cried Captain Scraggs. The lone deckhand emerged from a hole in the freight forward whither he had retreated to escape the vegetable barrage put over by Captain Scraggs when McGuffey left the ship. "Aye, aye, sir," he boomed.