To Captain Dixey, of the iron sea-going tug _Ice King_, lying tied up to her dock in Boston Harbor, came one winter’s morning a man in a fur coat and much bediamonded. “My name,” said the visitor, “is Wiley.” “And wily is your nature,” thought Dixey, who, according to report, was not too unsophisticated himself. “And I want to know what it will cost me for the services of your tug for one, two, three, or four days--a week, if necessary.” “That will depend on the service.” “Well, suppose I can’t just say what the service will be?” “Then I can’t tell you just what the price will be.” “Haven’t you a fixed price by the day?” “For a fixed service, yes. A man comes to me and says, ‘What do you want to run down to Newport News to tow a barge, or say two barges, of coal--fifteen or eighteen hundred tons in a barge--to Boston?’ I tell him. I’ll tell you, if it’s anything of that kind.” “’Tisn’t quite that.” “Well, a man comes to me and says, ‘Say, I have a vessel under the lee of Cape Cod’--say it’s blowin’ a no’wester like now--a vessel say to anchor at Provincetown or Chatham----” “Yes, yes, at Chatham----” “-- And you ask me what I’ll go and get her for and tow her to Boston? I’ll soon tell you, if you’ll tell me what her tonnage is.” “Say a two-thousand-ton bark, and loaded with mahogany.” “That’s a pretty big vessel and a pretty valuable cargo, and the wind’s liable to stay no’west for a while--blowin’ hard as it promises to, and a hard drag around Cape Cod and across the Bay in a no’wester----” “I know, I know--but how much?” “Me to leave right away?” “Well, maybe not at once--say in a few hours. But I’m ready to engage you at once.” “Well----” “But wait--it isn’t exactly a tow from anchorage.” “No?” “No. You see, it’s this way. I’m interested in this bark, and there’s a desperate sort of captain aboard, and she’s leaking, and I’m afraid that despite all instructions he’ll try and beat her around the Cape. And he mayn’t make it. And if he tries it and anything goes wrong--if he has to get help--say her sails blow off and she leaking-- I’d like to be right there and pick her up.” “Why, that’s salvage, and a towboat could claim salvage--if she really needed help.” “The towboat could claim? You mean the owners of the towboat could claim the salvage?” “Why, of course, the owners.” “Well, if I charter her I’d be the same as the owner, wouldn’t I?” “M-m-- I don’t know but what you would.” “Well, there it is.” “H’m--where’d you say she was layin’-- Chatham?” “I didn’t say.” “No? I thought you did.” “You think too fast. How much for your boat from now till the job’s over?” “Well, two thousand tons--her hull’d be worth a lot in itself. And mahogany--a two-thousand-ton ship ought to be carryin’ about a couple of million feet of lumber. And mahogany worth--how much a thousand is mahogany worth, anyway?” “I don’t know.”