The captain whirled his head and peered back over his shoulder at the unseen speaker. "What the hell's biting you now, Joe?" he growled. The questioner prefaced his words with a chuckle, but there was panic and hysteria in it. "I no lika this fog too moch. Too moch traffic in dam Sound thisa night. You no thinka we run too fast, cap?" * * * * * The captain shoved himself erect. "Feet gettin' cold, huh? Well, this is just our sort of weather, Joe. We'll slide to Oldfield Point under cover of the fog, slip the stuff to your men at the landing, and then we'll turn tail and hop out again. The chasers 'll be wondering whatinell happened this time. This is our eighth trip in together. I'm another thousand to the good and you're another hundred thousand. I never see you get scared before. What are you kicking about?" "I no feela right, cap! I have hoonch this time not so good! Listen, cap, you no think we better back up and get back out for less foggy time?" Up ahead two big fog horns blared. A long, lean tanker loomed out of the murk and grazed by. "Aw, damn it, Joe, shut up! Get to hell away from me! How can I con this ship with your bazoo going? Scat! Get over where you was and make a noise like a mouse!" "Leesten, cap!" Hysteria was making the Italian's voice tremble reedily. "You better swing round and put back out! I got two hunderd t'ousand dollars' wort' on board here. I lose that an' my guarantee on thisa vessel, see?" "Aw! Go back where you was, I told ye!" He gave the scared Italian a shove away from him. Joe Parento shuffled back along the rail and whined his woes to himself as he peered, listening desperately, into murk from the starboard wing. The fog had constantly thickened, and he dodged back as a huge black tramp wallowed by so close he could almost have reached out and touched it. "For Heaven's sake, cap!" He scrambled over and again tugged at the captain's sleeve. "Get to hell away, Joe! You're yellow as a Chink! I haven't lost a dime yet for you and I've made you a million while I was makin' seven grand for myself. What's got you scared of a little hatful of fog?" He groped for the speaking tube. "Give her another twenty revolutions, chief," his tense growl spoke down the tube. "_Per Dio!_" swore the Italian. "You get crazy lika the hell!" "Sh! Listen!" The captain craned out again. "_Wh-a-a-a-h! Whuh! Whuh! Whuh!_" The captain chuckled. "That's the Bridgeport-Port Jeff ferry! He's divin' over, and he's makin' it! Bully for him, and I'm glad he's out of our way!" Two big fog horns began booming, in question and answer, off to the port quarter ahead. "Them big fellows are gettin' worried," he growled half to himself, "gettin' close together and neither one knows just where t'other one is exactly!" "_Hoo-o-o-o-ooh! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!_" "_Gr-r-r-r-r-unh! Grr! Grr!_" In a moment came a long blast followed at an interval by two short grunts.