The other tug will
put a line aboard you."
But Mr. Gibney was now master of the situation. He had a good
hemp hawser stretching between him and salvation and until he
should be hauled off he had no intention of slipping that cable.
"Nothin' doin'," he answered. "We're hard an' fast, I tell you,
and I'll take no chances. It's you or both of you, but I'll not
cast off this hawser. If you want to let go, cast the hawser off
at your end." Sotto voce he remarked to Scraggs: "I see him
slippin' a three hundred dollar hawser, eh, Scraggsy, old
stick-in-the-mud?"
"But I promised Flaherty I'd let you alone," pleaded Hicks.
"What do you think you have your string fast to, anyhow? A bay
scow? If you fellows endanger my ship bickerin' over the salvage
I'll have you before the Inspectors on charges as sure as God
made little apples. I got sixty witnesses here to back up my
charges, too."
"You hear him, Jack?" howled Hicks.
"Wouldn't that swab Flaherty drive you to drink," Gibney
complained. "Trumpin' his partner's ace just for the glory an'
profit o' gettin' ahead of him?" Aloud he addressed the invisible
Flaherty: "Take it or leave it, brother Flaherty.
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