“No? Well, it’s worth a whole lot, that’s sure. Here’s the _Morning Commercial News_’ll tell. M-m--here’s pine, rough--spruce, planed--m-m--oak--m-m--mahogany--whew! Say, mahogany’s away up, isn’t it? Let me see now. I’ll do that job----” “Charter me your tug----” “Yes, charter you the tug for five thousand dollars for the whole job, and two hundred dollars a day--the two hundred a day in case there’s nothing doin’, in case that Skipper shouldn’t go clear crazy, you see, and put out and she leakin’.” Wiley put on his hat. “You don’t want much, do you? Five thousand dollars! I’ll give you a thousand for the whole job, or two hundred for every day you’re under charter if we don’t get her.” “No, no--a cargo of mahogany. Five thousand or nothing.” “Don’t be unreasonable. You know I can get plenty for a thousand----” “Not too many sea-going tugs right now. There’s always good pickin’ for a big tug in the Bay this time of year. And there’s a risk in your job.” “A little. But I can get a tug just as good as yours for a thousand.” “Can you? Then why don’t you?” “Well, I will. Good-day.” Captain Dixey gazed after Wiley going up the dock. “And so he can--for a thousand--if he don’t tell them too much. But that would be a rich haul, and I don’t see why I can’t do a little salvage business on my own account. Why not? She’s anybody’s prize that can get her. Two thousand tons and a bark--in the lee of the Cape somewhere, and loaded with mahogany--he said something about Chatham. It oughtn’t be too hard to find out.” Within ten minutes Captain Dixey was sending off telegrams like an Associated Press-man. He got the answer he wanted, and some hours later, when the man in the fur coat was putting out in another iron sea-going tug, the _Durlich_, Dixey, in the _Ice King_, was not half a mile behind him going across the Bay. II At about the same hour that the _Durlich_ and the _Ice King_ had breasted Cape Cod Light, the American fisherman _Buccaneer_, Crump Taylor master, lay hove-to on the Western Banks. On her deck were the two men on watch, alternately looking out for the big seas, and hailing one to the other when a particularly high one threatened to break over her rail. Young Arthur Gillis, standing forward, suddenly called out to Sam Leary, his watchmate, who was aft, “Here’s one coming aboard, Sam, I think.”