"Well, Matt," the latter hailed him pleasantly, "it's been a long time
since I've seen you in this office."
"And it'll be a long time till you see me here again, sir," Matt
retorted pleasantly. "I was about to call on you when your message
reached me. So suppose you tell me your business first. Then I'll
tell you mine."
"No, you won't, Matt," Cappy challenged him, "because hereafter you're
not going to have any business unless I have a finger in it too.
Matt, my son, do you recall the day you quit the Quickstep?"
"With pleasure," Matt assured him whimsically.
"You're vindictive; but no matter. Skinner declared you should never
again command a Blue Star ship while he was in my employ, and I said,
by George, that was right--you shouldn't. I said I was going to make
you our port captain, and eventually place you in charge of the
shipping after I had broken you in."
"I have a curiosity, sir, to know why you didn't go through with that
program."
"Skinner wouldn't let me--said he'd quit if I did, and I just couldn't
afford to lose him, Matt. However, I have all that fixed up now, so
you quit that tugboat job of yours and come to work here as soon as
you can. I could have put you to work three months ago, right after I
sewed Skinner up, but I thought I'd wait a little while just to save
poor Skinner's face.
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