native of Glasgow, Scotland; John Hardy, native of London, England.
The Flying Scud is ten years old, and this morning will be sold as she
stands, by order of Lloyd's agent, at public auction for the benefit of
the underwriters. The auction will take place in the Merchants' Exchange
at ten o'clock.
“Farther Particulars.--Later in the afternoon the OCCIDENTAL reporter
found Lieutenant Sebright, first officer of H.B.M.S. Tempest, at the
Palace Hotel. The gallant officer was somewhat pressed for time, but
confirmed the account given by Captain Trent in all particulars. He
added that the Flying Scud is in an excellent berth, and except in the
highly improbable event of a heavy N.W. gale, might last until next
winter.”
“You will never know anything of literature,” said I, when Jim had
finished. “That is a good, honest, plain piece of work, and tells the
story clearly. I see only one mistake: the cook is not a Chinaman; he is
a Kanaka, and I think a Hawaiian.”
“Why, how do you know that?” asked Jim.
“I saw the whole gang yesterday in a saloon,” said I. “I even heard the
tale, or might have heard it, from Captain Trent himself, who struck me
as thirsty and nervous.”
“Well, that's neither here nor there,” cried Pinkerton. “The point is,
how about these dollars lying on a reef?”
“Will it pay?” I asked.
“Pay like a sugar trust!” exclaimed Pinkerton. “Don't you see what this
British officer says about the safety? Don't you see the cargo's valued
at ten thousand? Schooners are begging just now; I can get my pick of
them at two hundred and fifty a month; and how does that foot up? It
looks like three hundred per cent. to me.”
“You forget,” I objected, “the captain himself declares the rice is
damaged.”
“That's a point, I know,” admitted Jim. “But the rice is the sluggish
article, anyway; it's little more account than ballast; it's the tea
and silks that I look to: all we have to find is the proportion, and one
look at the manifest will settle that. I've rung up Lloyd's on purpose;
the captain is to meet me there in an hour, and then I'll be as posted
on that brig as if I built her. Besides, you've no idea what pickings
there are about a wreck--copper, lead, rigging, anchors, chains, even
the crockery, Loudon!”
“You seem to me to forget one trifle,” said I. “Before you pick that
wreck, you've got to buy her, and how much will she cost?”
“One hundred dollars,” replied Jim, with the promptitude of an
automaton.
“How on earth do you guess that?” I cried.
“I don't guess; I know it,” answered the Commercial Force. “My dear boy,
I may be a galoot about literature, but you'll always be an outsider in
business. How do you suppose I bought the James L. Moody for two hundred
and fifty, her boats alone worth four times the money? Because my name
stood first in the list. Well it stands there again; I have the naming
of the figure, and I name a small one because of the distance: but it
wouldn't matter what I named; that would be the price.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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