As he went along the water-front and saw the ships lying at the wharves, it was "plumb" dark. Though he knew every tough in the city, he walked some way from the edge of the wharves and kept his hand on his six-shooter in the right-hand pocket of his coat. There is never any knowing what may happen in the low quarters of that sink of the Pacific, where all the scum of the world gathers, and it is well to keep one's eyes skinned lest worse may befall. Gardiner had no desire to turn up on a trestle at the morgue as his next public appearance. But though he was careful, he went cheerfully, and could not help laughing. "Great Scott, to think of Sibley Gawthrop as an able seaman on board the _Harvester_ or the _Wanderer_! But won't it do him good? These young Californians are a rotten crowd." He came at last to Smith's house, and stepped upon the verandah floor boldly. "Why, it's Mr. Gardiner of the _Chronicle_, so it is," said Billy, who was Smith's runner, and, next to his boss and a few politicians, the hardest case in California. "Is it Mr. Smith you want to see, sir?" "I'm only just doing a run around, and thought I'd look in, Billy," said Gardiner carelessly. "Ay, just a _cultus nannitch_, as they say in Chinook," replied Billy. "But we're always glad to see you." Gardiner doubted that. But Smith was always civil to newspaper men. He hadn't Gardiner bought, as he had the police, and he knew that a true column and a bit on his doings might bring down an avalanche any day. "And here is Mr. Smith," said Billy. "How are you makin' it?" asked Smith, "and what'll you drink?" But Gardiner was not drinking. It was so notoriously unhealthy to drink at Shanghai's place that few sober men were reckless enough to take a cocktail there. "How are you off for men?" asked Gardiner. "Is business good?" Smith shook his head. "Men? There are too many of 'em! Now hell ain't fuller of devils, Mr. Gardiner, than what San Francisco is of sailors, and you know as well as me that with sailormen a drug in the market, I don't come out on top." "To be sure," said Gardiner, "but I was thinking, as I came along, that you might get a ship for a young friend of mine." "I'll be glad to do anythin' for any friend of yours," said Smith, "but as I'm tellin' you, 'tis as easy to be President of the United States as to do business with the streets full of men that lets on to be sailors. What kind of a job is your friend lookin' for?" Gardiner laughed. "I want him to go a voyage before the mast. It will do him good." "Ah," said Smith quickly, "what's the game? But whatever it is with you, I'm on! Say it and mean it!--that's me." Gardiner edged him up to the quiet end of the verandah. "Smith, can you hold your tongue and earn a thousand dollars?" "Can I do what?" asked Smith. "Look here, so help me, I'd cut my tongue out for a thousand. I tell you, things are tough. What's the game?" And Gardiner, after looking round, whispered in his ear.