As a result of their efforts, the thwart came away with the
rope and the quartet sat down with exceeding abruptness on the
hard pine deck of the _Chesapeake_.
"I had an idee that thwart would pull loose," Mr. Gibney
remarked, as he got up and rubbed the seat of his dungarees. "If
you'd had an ounce of sense, Scraggsy, you'd have saved twenty
dollars an' rigged a watch-tackle, although even then the thwart
would have come away, pullin' agin a vacuum that way. Well,
you've lost a good skiff worth at least twenty-five dollars not
to mention the two ash breezes that went with her. That helps
some. What're you goin' to do now? Lay the _Maggie_ alongside the
bark? I wouldn't if I was you. The sea's a mite choppy an' if you
bump the _Maggie_ agin the bark she'll do one o' two things--stave
in her topsides or bump that top-heavy deckload o' vegetables overboard.
An' if that happens," he reminded Scraggs, "you'll be doin' your
bookkeepin' with red ink for quite a spell."
"I ain't licked yet--not by a jugful," Scraggs snapped.
"Halvorsen, haul down that signal halyard from the mizzenmast,
take one end of it in your teeth, an' swim back to the _Maggie_
with it.
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