"Lemme finish
readin'!" He continued:
REPORTS PASSING DERELICT
The steam schooner _Arethusa_, Grays Harbour to Oakland
Long wharf, reports passing a derelict schooner twenty
miles off Point Reyes at six o'clock last night. The
derelict was down by the head, and her rail just showed
above the water. It was impossible to learn her
identity.
The presence of this derelict in the steamer lanes to
North Pacific ports is a distinct menace to navigation,
and it is probable that a revenue cutter will be
dispatched to-day to search for the derelict and either
tow her into port or destroy her.
"Gentlemen o' the syndicate, them's the only two items in the
shippin' page that looks likely. The question is, in which lies
our fortune?"
Neils Halvorsen spoke up, giving it as his opinion that the
fortune-telling lady probably knew her business and that their
fortune really lay at sea. The derelict was at sea. How else,
then, could the prophecy be interpreted?
"Well, this steamer _Victor_ ain't exactly travelling overland,"
McGuffey suggested. He had a secret hankering to mess around some
real engines again, and gave it as his opinion that fortune was
more likely to lurk in a solid stern-wheel steamer with good
engines and boilers than in a battered hulk at sea.
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