Cappy Ricks Part 26

"Yump in an' do somedings yourself," Kjellin growled. "Don't stand roundt like a young leddy."

"D'ye mean you want I should mule shingles round in this hold like a longsh.o.r.eman?"

"Sure! Ve got to get to sea Sunday morning, und every liddle bit helps."

"Well, then you'll get along without my little bit. If you don't know your business, sir, I know mine. Somebody's got to tend that sling, and everybody's business is n.o.body's business. If I'm not on the job a bundle of shingles may come flying down from above and kill a man, or that heavy cargo block may crack a stevedore on the head. Who's going to look after the broken bundles and see that they're repacked if I don't?

I can't do that and mule shingles round in this hold, sir; and what's more I'm not going to do it."

"Den, by yimminy, you get off der ship!" the captain roared. "I don't vant no loafers aboard my boat, und if you tank--"

"Stow the gab, you big Finn! I'm through. Pay me off and help yourself to another second mate." And Matt put on his coat and whistled to the winchman to steady his slingload while he climbed out of the hold.

Kjellin followed and Matt preceded him to his stateroom, where the captain paid him the few dollars he had coming to him.

"Sign clear," he ordered, and Matt took an indelible pencil and stooped over the skipper's desk to sign the pay roll. As he straightened up the captain's powerful left forearm came round Matt's left shoulder and under his chin, tilting his head backward, while the Finn's left knee ground into the small of his back. He was held as in a vise, helpless, and Kjellin spoke:

"Ven I get fresh young faler like you, an' he quit me cold, I lick him after I pay him off."

"I see," Matt replied calmly. "That makes it a plain case of a.s.sault and battery, whereas if you lick him before you pay him off, he can sue your owners. You're a fine, smart squarehead!"

"You bet!" Kjellin answered, and struck him a stunning blow behind the ear. Matt, realizing his inability to wriggle out of the captain's grasp, kicked backward with his right foot and caught the Finn squarely on the right shin, splintering the bone. The captain cried out with the pain of it and released the pressure on Matt's chin, whereupon the latter whirled, picked the Finn up bodily, and threw him through the stateroom door out onto the deck, where he struck the pipe railing and rebounded. He lay where he fell, and when Matt's brain cleared and he came out on deck the captain was moaning.

"Get up, you brute!" Matt ordered. "You got the wrong pig by the ear that time."

"My leg ban broken," Kjellin whimpered.

"I wish it was your neck," Matt replied with feeling, and bent over to examine his fallen foe. When he grasped Kjellin by the right shoulder, however, the Finn screamed with pain, so Matt called the steward, and together they lifted him and carried him to his berth.

"I'll bet a cooky you're a total loss and no accident insurance," Matt soliloquized. "You're not worth it, but for the sake of the owners I'll get a doctor to look you over," and he went ash.o.r.e at once. When the doctor had looked Thorwald Kjellin over his verdict was a broken tibia, a broken radius and a broken clavicle.

Matt was concerned. "I don't think I ever had any of those things to get broken," he declared humorously, "but if mere words mean anything I'll bet this is a hospital job." The doctor nodded, and Matt turned to the captain: "Do you want to go to the hospital in Eureka or in San Francisco?"

"I ban vant to go home," the Finn moaned.

"Very well, captain; I guess your successor will bring you there. I'm going up to the mill office now to report to the owners by telephone."

"Dot ban't none o' your business, Peasley," Kjellin protested. "Dot is der first mate's job. You ban fired."

"Yes, I know. Now I'm back-firing," Matt retorted.

Fifteen minutes later he had Cappy Ricks on the long-distance telephone.

"Mr. Ricks," he began, "this is Peasley talking from Eureka. I have to report that I'm fired out of the Quickstep. I'm not complaining about that or asking you to reinstate me, because I can get another job now, but I want to tell you why I was fired. The captain got a grouch against me coming up. We had a nor'west gale on our port counter and she rolled and bucked until even some of the crew got seasick. I'm ashamed to say I fell by the wayside myself for a few minutes, and Captain Kjellin caught me draped over the weather bridge railing. So I guess he thought I wasn't much of a seaman. Anyhow he picked on me from then on, and a little while ago he ordered me to mule shingles with the longsh.o.r.emen in the after hold. I couldn't do that, Mr. Ricks. I'm a ship's officer, and besides you've simply got to have somebody to watch the slings when they're coming into the ship at the rate of two a minute or somebody will get hurt, and then the vessel will be sued for damages. You see we were working overtime and in a hurry to get loaded--"

"I see everything," Cappy retorted. "What happened next?"

"The captain got me foul in his cabin when I went to be paid off, and hung a shanty back of my ear, so I threw him out on deck and hurt him.

You'll have to send a new skipper up to bring the Quickstep home, sir.

The first mate is a good man but he hasn't a master's license--"

"What did you do to Kjellin, Matt?"

"You'll have to ask a doctor, sir. I didn't intend to break him up, but it seems I damaged all his Latin superstructure, and he'll have to go to a hospital for a couple of months. I'm sorry I hurt your skipper, sir, and I felt I couldn't leave your employ, Mr. Ricks, without an explanation."

"You haven't left my employ at all. Get back on the job and load that vessel, or the first thing you know you'll be stuck in port over Sunday, and that's not the way to make a start as master of the Quickstep. You have a license as master of steam, haven't you?"

"Yes, sir. I can handle her, sir."

"Then do it and don't stand there burning up good money on the long-distance phone. The Quickstep is yours--on one condition."

"I accept it, sir," Matt exclaimed, overjoyed. "What is it?"

"That you stick in her at least six months."

"I will if I live and she floats that long, sir. Thank you. Please have a second mate and an ambulance waiting for me at Meiggs Wharf on Monday.

I'll touch in there on my way up river to discharge what's left of your skipper."

CHAPTER x.x.x. MR. SKINNER HEARS A LECTURE

Down in the offices of the Blue Star Navigation Company Cappy Ricks, having summoned Mr. Skinner, sat peering whimsically at the general manager over the rims of his spectacles. "Well, Skinner, my dear boy,"

he announced presently, "sure enough there was something wrong with the Quickstep, and now I know what it is; she has had the wrong master. When he hustles to catch a tide or to get to sea Sat.u.r.day night or Sunday morning he drives his mates and tries to make them do longsh.o.r.emen's work. When he bullied a weak mate into doing that, there was n.o.body to pay exclusive attention to the slingloads as they came into the ship, and naturally accidents resulted. When strong second mates refused he fired them, and after firing them he cornered them in his cabin, held them foul and beat them. You see, Skinner, this skook.u.m skipper of yours didn't realize that with two slingloads of shingles a minute dropping into the ship he had to have a man on the job to watch the loading and do nothing else; and because he didn't realize the error of his way, Skinner, he and Matt Peasley have pulled off that little skin-glove contest, and now Kjellin looks like a barrel of cement that's been dropped out the window of a six-story building. Hum! Ahem! Harump-h-h-h!

Call up the attorney for that man Jacobsen that's suing the Quickstep, and tell him to come down here with his man and we'll settle the case out of court. His charge lies against Kjellin for a.s.sault and battery, but after all, Skinner, I dare say we are in a measure responsible for our servants. I'll give the attorney about twenty-five dollars for his fee, and er--the man Jacobsen--let me see, Skinner, he had a broken nose, did he not?"

"Yes, sir."

"We'll pay his doctor bill and his wages as second mate since Kjellin fired him, and give him a hundred dollars extra."

"How about Kjellin's hospital bill?"

"I disclaim responsibility, Skinner. Did he settle up with the cashier for his last voyage?"

"Yes, Mr. Ricks."

"Then send him a wireless and tell him he's fired. Also, Skinner, my boy, see that an ambulance is waiting for him at Meiggs Wharf when he arrives on the Quickstep on Monday. We'll show him we're not entirely heartless. Make it clear, however, that this office will not be responsible for the ambulance fee. Matt will bring the vessel down without a second mate, I dare say. He'll stand a watch himself. Better call up Harbor 15 and see if there isn't a second mate out of a job hanging round there, and tell him to join the ship at Meiggs Wharf."

Mr. Skinner's eyes fairly popped. "You don't mean to tell me, sir, that you've given the Quickstep to that rowdy Peasley?"

Cappy relapsed into the colloquialism of the younger generation with which he was wont to a.s.sociate at luncheon. "Surest thing you know," he said.

"If I may be permitted a criticism, Mr. Ricks--"

"You may not."

"Your sentimental leaning toward your fellow townsman may be the cause of losing one of the best paying ships of the fleet."

"Forget it, Skinner!"