If us three could get back to San
Francisco with clean hands, I'd say lick the beggar an' lick him
for fair. But we got to remember that this mate was one o' the
original filibuster crew o' the old _Maggie I_. The day we
tackled the Mexican navy an' took this power schooner away from
'em, we put ourselves forty fathom plumb outside the law, an'
this mate was present an' knows it. We've changed the vessel's
name an' rig, an' doctored up the old _Maggie's_ papers to suit
the _Maggie II_, an' we've give her a new dress. But at that,
it's hard to disguise a ship in a live port, an' the secret
service agents o' the Mexican government may be a-layin' for us
in San Francisco; and with this here mate agin us an' ready to
turn state's evidence, we're pirates under the law, an' it don't
take much imagination to see three pirates swingin' from the same
yard-arm. No, sir, Mac. I ain't got no wish, now that we're fixed
nice an' comfortable with the world's goods, to be hung for a
pirate in the mere shank o' my youth. Why, I ain't fifty year old
yet."
"By the tail o' the Great Sacred Bull," chattered Scraggs. "Gib's
right."
McGuffey was plainly disappointed.
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