Also, he had lost his
skiff, and McGuffey and Gibney had practically blackmailed him
out of forty dollars. Then, to cap the climax, he had been forced
to abandon two thousand dollars to his enemies; and as the
_Maggie_ crept north at three knots an hour the knowledge that he
must, even against his desires, install a new boiler, overwhelmed
him to such an extent that he found it impossible to submit
silently to the nagging of the navigating officer. One word
borrowed another until diplomatic relations were severed and, in
the language of the classic, they "mixed it." They were fairly
well matched, and, to the credit of Captain Scraggs be it said,
whenever he believed himself to have a fighting chance Scraggs
would fight and fight well, under the Tom-cat rules of fisticuffs.
Following a bloody battle in the pilot house, he subdued the
mate; following his victory he was still war mad, so he went to
the engine-room hatch and abused the engineer. As a result of the
day's events, both men quit when the _Maggie_ was tied up at
Jackson Street wharf and once more Captain Scraggs was helpless.
In his extremity, he wished he hadn't been so hard on Mr.
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