Mr. Gibney stood up and dusted the seat of his new suit. He was dry after his long recital and Captain Scraggs was too long putting in an appearance, so he decided not to wait for him. "Let's go an' stow away a glass of beer," he suggested to McGuffey. "I'm thirstier'n a camel." McGuffey was willing so they left the bulkhead for the more convivial shelter of the Bowhead saloon. CHAPTER XV Had either Gibney or McGuffey glanced back as they headed for their haven of forgetfulness they might have seen Captain Scraggs poking his fox face up over the edge of a tier of potato boxes piled on the bulkhead not six feet from where Gibney and McGuffey had been sitting. Upon his return to the _Maggie_, about the time Mr. Gibney commenced spinning his yarn, he had almost walked into the worthy pair, and, wishing to avoid the jeers and jibes he felt impending, he had merely stepped aside and hidden behind the potato boxes in order to eavesdrop on their plans, if possible. Had Mr. Gibney been less interested in his past or Mr. McGuffey less interested in the recital of that past they would have seen Scraggs. The owner of the _Maggie_ shook his fist in impotent rage at their retreating backs. "You think you've suffered before," he snarled. "But I'll make you suffer some more, you big brute. I'll hurt you worse than if I caved in your head with a belayin' pin. I'll break your heart, that's what I'll do to you. You wait." In the course of an hour Gibney and McGuffey returned, and Scraggs met them as they leaped down on to the deck of the _Maggie_. "Gentlemen," he remarked--"an' at that I'm givin' you two all the best of it, even if you two have got a quit-claim deed that you ain't pirates--I wish to announce that if you two have come aboard my ship for the puppose o' havin' a little fun at my expense, I'm a-goin' to call the police an' have you arrested for disturbin' the peace. On the other hand an' futher, if your mission's a peaceful one, you're welcome aboard the _Maggie_. I may have a temper an' say things that sounds mighty harsh when I'm het up, but in my calmer moments my natural inclination is to be a sport." "Scraggsy, old hard-luck," Mr. Gibney boomed, "we won so we can afford to be generous in victory. Like you, me an' Mac is inclined to be uppish at times, particularly in the hour of triumph, an' say an' do things we're apt to be ashamed of later." "Them's my sentiments," McGuffey chimed in. "We ain't comin' aboard to beg you for no job," Mr. Gibney warned. "Git that idea out o' your head--if you got it there. Me an' Bart each got close to a thousand dollars in bank this minute an' we're as free an' independent as two hogs walkin' on ice. Any ol' time we can't stand up we can set down." Captain Scraggs was frankly mystified. "If you two got a thousand dollars each in bank--an' I ain't disputin' it, for I hear on good authority you got that much for salvin' the _Chesapeake_--what're you hangin' around the _Maggie_ for?"