"
"You don't know how. Besides, you're afraid to go aboard that
bark. You don't know what kind of a frightful disease she may
have aboard. Do you know a plague ship when you see one?"
Captain Scraggs paled a little, but the prospect of the salvage
heartened him. "I don't give a hoot," he declared. "I'll take a
chance."
"All right. Consider it taken. How're you goin' to get aboard
her?"
"In the skiff."
"Where's the skiff?"
Captain Scraggs glanced around wildly, and when McGuffey jeered
him, he cast his hat upon the deck and started to leap upon it.
The devilish Gibney was right. It appeared that owing to a glut
of freight on the landing, Captain Scraggs had decided, in view
of the fine weather prevailing, to take an unusually large cargo
that trip. With this idea in mind, he had piled freight over
every available inch of deck space until the cargo was flush with
the top of the house. On top of the house, the skiff always
rested, bottom up. Captain Scraggs had righted the skiff, piled
it full of loose artichokes from half a dozen crates broken in
the cargo net while loading, and then proceeded to pile more
vegetables on top of it and around it until the _Maggie's_ funnel
barely showed through the piled-up freight, and the little vessel
was so top heavy she was cranky.
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