Cappy Ricks Part 40

Skinner, who returned the glance with one that seemed to shout aloud: "Mr. Ricks, I smell a rat as big as a Shetland pony. Something has slipped and we're covered with blood. Incredible as it may seem, this rowdy Peasley has outthought us!"

"Did you get the letter we sent Captain Grant at Panama?" Skinner managed to articulate presently.

Matt nodded affirmatively.

"Opened it, I suppose!" Cappy accused him.

Matt nodded negatively, produced the letter from his pocket and handed it to Cappy.

"Where I was raised," he said gently, "they taught boys that it was wrong to read other people's private correspondence. You will note that the seal is unbroken."

"Thank G.o.d for that!" Cappy Ricks murmured, sotto voice, and tore the letter into tiny bits. "Now, then," he said, "we'll hear the rest of your story."

"When did a doctor look you over last?" Matt queried. "I'm afraid you'll die of heart disease before I finish."

"I'm sound in wind and limb," Cappy declared. "I'm not so young as I used to be; but, by Jupiter, there isn't any young pup on the street who can tell me where to head in! What next?"

"Of course, Mr. Ricks, very shortly after I had rechartered the Tillic.u.m to Morrow & Company I began to suspect they were shy of sufficient capital to run their big business comfortably. I found it very hard to collect; so, fully a month before they went up the spout, I commenced to figure on what would happen to me if they did. Consequently, I wasn't caught napping. On the day Morrow committed suicide the company gave me a check that was repudiated at the bank. I protested it and immediately served formal notice on Morrow & Company that their failure to meet the terms of our charter party necessitated immediate cancellation; and accordingly I was cancelling it."

"Did you send that notice by registered mail?" Skinner demanded.

"You bet!--with a return registry receipt requested."

Cappy nodded at Skinner approvingly, as though to say: "Smart of him, eh?" Matt continued:

"After sending my wireless to Captain Grant aboard the Tillic.u.m I sent a cablegram to the Panama Railroad people informing them that, owing to certain circ.u.mstances over which I had no control, the steamer Tillic.u.m, fully loaded and en route to Panama to discharge cargo, had been turned back on my hands by the charterers. I informed them I had diverted the steamer to San Diego for orders, and in the interim, unless the Panama Railroad guaranteed me by cable immediately sixty per cent. of the through-freight rate for the Tillic.u.m, and a return cargo to San Francisco, I would decline to send the Tillic.u.m to Panama, but would, on the contrary, divert her to Tehuantepec and transship her cargo over the American-Hawaiian road there. I figured--"

"You infernal scoundrel!" Cappy Ricks murmured. "You--slippery--devil!"

"Of course," Matt went on calmly, "I had no means of knowing what freight rate Morrow & Company received; but I figured that they ought to get about forty per cent., the Panama Railroad about twenty per cent., and the steamer on the Atlantic side the remaining forty. So I decided to play safe and ask sixty per cent. of the through rate, figuring that the Panama Railroad would give it to me rather than have the Tillic.u.m's cargo diverted over their compet.i.tor's road at Tehuantepec. In the first place they were depending on business from Morrow & Company's ships; and, with Morrow & Company gone broke and a new company liable to take over their line, it would be a bad precedent to establish, to permit one cargo to go to the compet.i.tor. Future cargoes might follow it!

"Then, too, the schedule of the ships on the Atlantic side of the Ca.n.a.l doubtless had been made up already, with a view to handling this cargo ex-Tillic.u.m, and to lose the cargo would throw that schedule out of joint; in fact, from whatever angle I viewed the situation, I could see that the railroad company would prefer to give up its twenty per cent.

rather than decline my terms. They might think their compet.i.tor had already made me an offer! Of course, it was all a mighty bluff on my part, but bluffs are not always called, particularly when they're made good and strong; and, believe me, my bluff was anything but weak in the knees. I told the Panama people to wire their reply to me at San Diego, and when I got to that city, twenty-four hours later, their answer was awaiting me."

"They called your bluff?" Mr. Skinner challenged.

"Pooh-pooh for you!" Matt laughed. "G.o.d is good and the devil not half bad. I got the guaranties I asked for, old dear! Don't you ever think I'd have been crazy enough to go to Panama without them."

Cappy jerked forward in his chair again.

"Matt," he said sternly, "you have defaulted in your payments to the Blue Star Navigation Company to the tune of eighteen thousand dollars, and I'd like to hear what you have to say about that."

"Well, I couldn't help it," Matt replied, "I was shy ten thousand dollars when Morrow & Company defaulted on me, and I was at sea when the other payment fell due. However, you had your recourse. You could have canceled the charter on me. That was a chance I had to take.

"Why didn't you grab the ship away from me? If you had done that you would be in the clear to-day instead of up to your neck in grief."

"We'll grab her away from you to-day--never fear!" Cappy promised him.

"I guess we'll get ours from the freight due on that cargo of steel rails you came home with."

"You have another guess coming, Mr. Ricks. You'll not do any grabbing to-day, for the reason that somebody else has already grabbed her."

"Who?" chorused Cappy and Skinner.

"The United States Marshal. Half an hour ago the Pacific Shipping Company libeled her."

"What for, you bonehead? You haven't any cause for libel, so how can you make it stick?"

"The Pacific Shipping Company has cause, and it can make the libel stick. The first mate of the Tillic.u.m a.s.signed to the Pacific Shipping Company his claim for wages as mate--"

"Matt, you poor goose! The Pacific Shipping Company OWE him his wages.

Your d.i.n.k of a company chartered the boat, and we will not pay such a ridiculous claim."

"I do not care whether you do or not. That libel will keep you from canceling my charter, although when you failed to cancel when I failed to make the payments as stipulated, your laxity must be regarded in the eyes of the law as evidence that you voluntarily waived that clause in the charter; and after you have voluntarily waived a thing twice you'll have a job making it stick the third time."

"If I had only known!" groaned Skinner miserably.

"Besides," Matt continued brightly, "I have a cargo in that vessel, and she's under charter to my company at six hundred dollars a day.

Of course you know very well, Mr. Ricks, that while the United States Marshal remains in charge of her I cannot discharge an ounce of that cargo or move the ship, or--er--anything. Well, naturally that will be no fault of the Pacific Shipping Company, Mr. Ricks. It will be up to the Blue Star Navigation Company to file a bond and lift that libel in order that I may have some use of the ship I have chartered from you.

If you do not pull the plaster off of her of course I'll have to sue you for heavy damages; and I can refuse to pay you any moneys due you."

"We'll lift the libel in an hour," Mr. Skinner declared dramatically; and he took down the telephone to call up the attorney for the Blue Star.

"Wait!" said Matt. "I'm not through. Before I entered the harbor I called all hands up on the boat deck and explained matters to them. They had been engaged by Morrow & Company, and the firm of Morrow & Company was in the bankruptcy court; so the prospects of cash from that quarter did not seem encouraging. The Pacific Shipping Company had made a bare-boat charter from the Blue Star Navigation Company, and had then made a similar charter to Morrow & Company; consequently the Pacific Shipping Company would repudiate payment, and, as president and princ.i.p.al stockholder of that company, I took it on myself to repudiate any responsibility then and there.

"Then the crew wanted to know what they should do, and I said: 'Why, seek the protection of the law, in such cases made and provided. A seaman is not presumed to have any knowledge of the intricate deals his owners may put through. All he knows is that he is employed aboard a ship, and if he doesn't get his money from the charterers at the completion of the voyage he can libel the ship and collect from the owners. This is a fine new steamer, men, and I, for one, believe she is good for what is owing you all; and if you will a.s.sign your claims to the Pacific Shipping Company I will pay them in full and trust to the Blue Star Navigation Company to reimburse me.' So they did that.

"Now go ahead, Mr. Skinner, and lift the libel I put on the vessel for my first mate's account, and the instant you get it lifted I'll slap another libel on her for account of the second mate. Get rid of the second mate's claim and up bobs the steward, and so on, ad libitum, e pluribus unum, now and forever, one and inseparable. I care not what course others may pursue, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Mr. Skinner quietly hung up the telephone receiver.

"And, by the way," Matt continued, "I forgot to mention that I requested the steward to stay aboard and make the United States Marshal comfortable as soon as he arrived. In these little matters one might as well be courteous, and I should hate to have the Tillic.u.m acquire a reputation for being cheap and inhospitable."

"You dirty dog!" cried Cappy Ricks hoa.r.s.ely.

"Really, my dear Peasley, this matter has pa.s.sed beyond the joke stage,"

Mr. Skinner began suavely.

"Let me get along with my story," said he. "The worst is yet to come. My attorney informs me--"

"Matt Peasley," said Cappy Ricks, "that's the first lie I ever knew you to tell. You don't have to hire an attorney to tell you where to head in, you infernal sea lawyer!"

"I thank you for the compliment," Matt observed quizzically. "Perhaps I deserve it. However, 'we come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;' so, if you will kindly hold over your head, Mr. Ricks, I'll be pleased to hit it another swat."

"Well, I'll admit that the failure of Morrow & Company and the Pacific Shipping Company to pay the crew of the Tillic.u.m puts the buck up to me, and I dare say I'll have to pay," Cappy admitted, his voice trembling with rage.

"Well, that isn't the only bill you'll have to pay. Don't cheer until you're out of the woods, Mr. Ricks. You'll have to pay for a couple of thousand barrels of fuel oil, and a lot of engine supplies, and sea stores, and laundry, and water--why, Lord bless you, Mr. Ricks, I can't begin to think of all the things you're stuck for!"

"Not a bit of it!" Cappy cried triumphantly. "It was an open-boat charter, my son, and you rechartered on the same basis; and, though Morrow & Company were originally responsible you'll find that the creditors, despairing of collecting from them, will come down on the Pacific Shipping Company like a pack of ravening wolves, by thunder!

Don't YOU cheer until YOU'RE out of the woods!"