As a
matter of fact, Scraggs would not have given him one.
The two weeks that followed were busy ones for Captain Scraggs.
The day after his interview with Scab Johnny and Don Manuel he
engaged an engineer and a deck hand and went up the Sacramento to
bring the _Maggie_ down to San Francisco. Upon her arrival she
was hauled out on the marine ways at Oakland creek, cleaned,
caulked, and some new copper sheathing put on her bottom. She was
also given a dash of black paint, had her engines and boilers
thoroughly overhauled and repaired, and shipped a new propeller
that would add at least a knot to her speed. Also, she had her
stern rebuilt. And when everything was ready, she slipped down to
the Black Diamond coal bunkers and took on enough fuel to carry
her to San Pedro; after which she steamed across the bay to San
Francisco and tied up at Fremont Street wharf.
The cargo came down in boxes, variously labelled. There were
"agricultural implements," a "cream separator," a "windmill," and
half a dozen "sewing-machines," in addition to a considerable
number of kegs alleged to contain nails. Most of it came down
after five o'clock in the afternoon after the wharfinger had left
the dock, and as nothing but a disordered brain would have
suspected the steamer _Maggie_ of an attempt to break the
neutrality laws, the entire cargo was gotten aboard safely and
without a jot of suspicion attaching to the vessel.
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