“Matt,” he demanded suspiciously, “what the devil have you been up to?”

Matt raised a huge forefinger.

“Number one,” he began:  “I bought the Oriental Steamship Company’s freighter Narcissus, seventy-five hundred tons’ register, for two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in a month she’ll be in tiptop shape and ready for sea.  I’ve paid twenty-five thousand dollars down on her and I’ll have to make a payment of twenty thousand dollars on the twenty-sixth of September and twenty thousand dollars a month on her thereafter until she, is paid for.  And if I default on a payment for more than thirty days before I’ve paid off half of the purchase price the Oriental Steamship Company may, at its option, take the vessel away from me.”

Cappy Ricks smiled.

“Ah!” he breathed softly.  “So you want help, eh?  You finally did manage to get into deep water close to the shore, and now you’re yelling to father to come through and save you, eh?  Well, I’ll do it, my boy, because I think you made a bully buy; and she’s worth it.  I’ll take over your bargain for you and give you, say—­er—­ahem! we—­harumph-h-h—­say twenty-five thousand dollars profit.  Not so bad, eh?  When I was your age—­” Cappy paused, open-mouthed.  He had suddenly remembered something.  “Oh, no,” he contradicted himself; “this isn’t my foolish day—­not by a jugful!  You owe me a lot of money on that promissory note you gave me when we settled up for that Tillicum business—­so I’ll not give you any money after all.  I’ll just take the contract of sale off your hands, give you back the money you risked in the deal—­and your promissory note, cancelled.”  And Cappy Ricks sat back and clawed his whiskers expectantly.

“Oh, I’m not in distress,” Matt answered cheerfully.  “On the contrary, I’m going to take up that note before the week is out.”

Once more Cappy slid out to the edge of his chair.

“Where are you going to get the money?” he demanded bluntly.

“I’m going to sell the Narcissus.  The day I purchased her it was a moral certainty that Europe was to be plunged into a terrible war; so the ink wasn’t dry on the contract before I was streaking it for New York.  War was declared by England on Germany on the fifth of August, and while you’d be saying Jack Robinson every German freighter went into neutral ports to intern until the war should terminate.  The German raiders are still out after the British and French commerce, and the deep-water shipping out of Eastern ports isn’t a business any more.  It’s a delirium—­a night-mare!  Why, I was offered any number of charters for my Narcissus, but I didn’t bother trying to charter her until just before I started for home; and, moreover, the longer I waited the better charter I could make.  Besides, she isn’t in commission yet—­and I had other fish to fry.”

“For instance?” Cappy inquired wonderingly.

“It is an undisputed fact that the early bird gets the worm,” Matt Peasley replied brightly, “and I was the early bird.  I was in New York a few days before the war became general, and for a week thereafter everybody was so blamed interested in the fighting they neglected business.  But I didn’t.  I went to New York to charter, under the government form, as many big steel freighters as I could lay hands on—­