“Out of my office!” Cappy raved; for though he was a business man, and never hesitated to do business in a businesslike way, he was the soul of business honor, and in all his life he had never taken a mean or unfair advantage of those who trusted him.  The knowledge that Matt Peasley had done such a thing filled him with rage not unmixed with sorrow.

“I’ll be gone in a minute,” Matt replied gently; “only before I go permit me to tell you something, and on my honor as a man and a sailor I assure you I speak the truth.  That wasn’t a salvage job at all.”

“What?”

Matt repeated the statement.  Cappy blinked and clawed at his whiskers.

“Oh,” he said presently, “I had forgotten that you and Captain Murphy were once shipmates.  And so that fellow Murphy stood in with you to work a hocuspocus game on me, eh?” he thundered.  “By Godfrey, I’ll fire him for it!” and he rushed to the office door, opened it and called to Skinner:  “Skinner, Murphy is to be fired.  Attend to it.”  Then he closed the door again and faced Matt Peasley.

“Murphy is to be reinstated,” Matt assured Cappy, “for the reason that Murphy was in deadly earnest when he signed that paper.  In five minutes he would have been a skipper without a ship, and he knew it.  If you fire Murphy you do a fine man a terrible injustice.”

“Well, how in blue blazes did he get so close to the beach and let himself into your clutches?” Cappy raved.

“He couldn’t answer that question, sir.  He doesn’t know.  He thinks the current set him in there.  It didn’t.  I set him in there.”

“You set him in?” Cappy queried incredulously.

“I set him in.  I kept backing up on his starboard counter, ostensibly to dicker with him, and as soon as I had the stern of my tug within a few feet of the Retriever I’d signal my mate at the wheel, he’d give the engineer full speed ahead—­why you have no idea of the force of the quick water thrown back from that big towing propeller of the Sea Fox.  The rush of it just swung the Retriever’s nose slowly toward the beach and kicked her ahead fifteen or twenty feet, and then her sheer momentum carried her thirty yards farther.  By that time I was backed up to her again, bargaining with Murphy, and ready for another kick.  It was easier after the flood tide set in, and I kept at her all night long, and gradually kicked her into the breakers, where I wanted her.  I knew Murphy would listen to reason then.  So you see, Mr. Ricks, it wasn’t a salvage job, and I didn’t betray my owners at all—­”

“You Yankee thief!” Cappy yelled, and dashed at Matt, to enfold the son-in-law-to-be in a paternal embrace.  “Oh, Matt, my boy, why do you want to be a tugboat man when I need a man with your brains?  Why don’t you be sensible and listen to reason?”

Matt held the old man off at arm’s length and grinned at him affectionately.

“It’s worth twenty thousand dollars to get the better of you, sir,” he said.