Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

And when at last he was equipped he went forth from Limeport; he went

blithely, although he knew that a Titan's job faced him. He kept his own

counsel as to what he proposed to do with the steamer. He even allowed

the water-front gossips to guess, unchallenged, that he was going to

junk the wreck. He was not inviting more of that brazen hostility that

characterized the operations of Fogg and his hirelings.

He was at the wheel of a husky lighter which he had chartered; the rest

of the crew he supplied from his own men. The lighter was driven by its

own power, and carried a good pump and a sturdy crane; its decks were

loaded high with coal. The schooner was now merely convoy. It was an

all-day trip to Razee, for the lighter was a slow and clumsy craft, but

when Mayo at last made fast to the side of the Conomo and squealed a

shrill salute with the whistle, the joy he found in Captain Candage's

rubicund countenance made amends for anxiety and delay.

"I knew you'd make a go of it, somehow," vouchsafed the old skipper.

"But who did you have to knock down in a dark place so as to steal his

money off'n him?"

"That's private business till we get ready to pay it back, with six per

cent, interest," stated the young man, bluntly.

"Oh, very well. So long as we've got it I don't care where you stole

it," returned Candage, with great serenity. "I simply know that you

didn't get it from skinflint Rowley, and that's comfort enough for me.

Let me tell you that we haven't been loafing on board here. We rigged

that taakul you see aloft, and jettisoned all the cargo we could get

at. It was all spoiled by the water. There's pretty free space for

operations 'midships. I've got out all her spare cable, and it's ready."

"And you've done a good job there, sir. We've got to make this lighter

fast alongside in such a way that a blow won't wreck her against us.

Spring cables--plenty of them--and we are sailors enough to know how to

moor. But when I think of what amateurs we are in the rest of this job,

cold shivers run over me."

"That Limeport water-front crowd got at you, too, hey?"

"Captain Candage, I have watched men more or less in this life. It's

sometimes a mighty big handicap for a man to be too wise. While the

awfully wise man sits back and shakes his head and figures prospects and

says it can't be done, the fool rushes in, because he doesn't know any

better, and blunders the job through and wins out. Let's keep on being

fools, good and plenty, but keep busy just the same."