I was in New
York a few days before the war became general, and for a week
thereafter everybody was so blamed interested in the fighting they
neglected business. But I didn't. I went to New York to charter,
under the government form, as many big steel freighters as I could lay
hands on--
Cappy Ricks raised his clasped hands and gazed reverently upward.
"Oh, Lord!" he murmured. "How many? How many?"
"Fifteen," Matt Peasley murmured complacently. "I got about half of
them real cheap, because business was rotten when I landed in the
East. Why, I chartered the entire fleet of one shipping firm in
Boston. I had to pay a stiffer rate for the others; but--"
"How long did you charter them for?" Cappy yelled. "Quick! Tell me!"
"All for a year, with the privilege of renewal at a ten per cent.
advance. I had no difficulty in rechartering to the men who had been
asleep on the job. I shall average a profit of two hundred dollars a
day on each of the fifteen even if I do not charter them longer--"
"A day!" Cappy's voice rose to a shrill scream.
"A day! Any American bottom that will float and move through the
water is worth five times what it was before war was declared, and the
freight rates are going up every day. Three thousand dollars a day
income--three hundred and sixty-five days in the year! Man, if the
war lasts a year I'll make a million dollars net!"
"But--but--about this Narcissus?" Cappy sputtered.
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