Will
you please be good enough to book Florry and me passage to Europe
right away. I've never been to Europe, you know, Skinner, and I think
it's time I took a vacation."
Mr. Skinner smiled. "Why all the hurry?" he queried.
"I want to try out a theory," Cappy replied. "I have a great
curiosity, Skinner, to ascertain if there is any truth in the old
saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder. And if it does,
Skinner--why, the sooner I start the sooner I can get back."
Mr. Skinner went out mystified. As Mark Twain's friend, Mr. Ballou,
remarked about the coffee, Cappy Ricks was a little too "technical"
for him.
CHAPTER XXXI
INTERNAL COMBUSTION
The Quickstep had arrived in port again before Cappy Ricks and Florry
could get away to Europe, so Matt came down by train from Los Medanos
and was granted the meager comfort of a farewell with his heart's
desire. Thereafter all comfort fled his life, for, with Cappy Ricks
away, Mr. Skinner was high and low justice, and he was not long
keeping Matt Peasley in ignorance of the fact that it was one thing to
skipper a Blue Star ship for Cappy Ricks and quite another thing to
skipper the same ship for the Blue Star manager. For Mr. Skinner had
never liked Captain Peasley, and, moreover, he never intended to, for
the master of the Quickstep was not sufficiently submissive to earn
the general manager's approbation as a desirable employee, and Cappy
Ricks was the only man with a will and a way of his own who could get
along amicably in the same office with the efficient and cold-blooded
Mr.
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