Ricks. I pulled your barkentine
Retriever out of the breakers this morning. In fifteen minutes she
would have been on the beach and a total loss--and I have a document,
signed by Captain Murphy and his mates, to prove it. I offered the
pig-headed fellow a tow at ten o'clock the night before, but he
declined it--trying to save a few dollars, of course--so when I had
him where he had to have my services--"
"Well!" Cappy snapped, "send your owners round and we'll try to settle
out of court. If they're hogs we'll fight 'em, that's all."
"And if you do you'll get licked. We'll get a quarter of the value of
that vessel and her cargo. She's easily worth fifty thousand dollars
and her cargo is worth thirty thousand more--that's eighty thousand,
and a quarter of eighty thousand dollars is twenty thousand."
"You'll have to fight for it, I tell you," Cappy reiterated.
"There is no necessity for a fight, Mr. Ricks. It all rests with me
whether this is a salvage job or just a plain towing job at the
customary rates."
Cappy looked at his ex-skipper keenly.
"Matt," he charged, "you've got a scheme. You want something."
"I do; I want to save you a lot of fuss and worry and expense. In
return I want you to do something for me."
"I'll do it, Matt. What is the program?"
"Give me that twenty thousand dollars you justly owe me--twenty
thousand dollars I have to my credit on your books, which you are
withholding just because you have the power to withhold it.
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