For some time, whenever the Quickstep carried shingle cargoes for the Shingle Association, there had been disputes over her freight bill, due to continued discrepancies between the tally in and the tally out, and Mr. Skinner had instructed Matt to tally his next cargo into the ship himself and then tally it out again.  Matt engaged a certified lumber surveyor at five dollars a day to do the tallying at the various mills, but at Los Medanos he tallied the cargo out personally.  To a shingle it agreed with the mill tally.  Subsequently the manager of the drying yard reported a shortage of eight thousand shingles, and again Mr. Skinner wrote Matt for an explanation, to which Matt replied as follows: 

“Do not pay any attention to the yard manager’s tally.  Ours is right.  A certified tallyman counted 11,487,250 in, and I counted 11,487,250 out, as I have already reported.  Sorry I cannot reverse my decision.  However, I have an idea which may account for the shortage:  After the vessel is reported down river, the stevedores gather on the dock, and while waiting for us to arrive and commence discharging they whittle shingles to pass the time away.  I give you this information for what it may be worth.”

Mr. Skinner had the grace to see that he had been rebuked and left standing in a very poor light for one of his noted efficiency, so he did not pursue the subject further; but the next time Matt came to the office he jumped on him for carrying a dead-head passenger from San Pedro in the first cabin.

“Of course I carried him,” Matt replied.  “When I was before the mast in the Annabel Lee he was her skipper, so when I met him in Pedro minus his ticket and stony broke I gave him a lift to San Francisco.  Mr. Ricks informed me that I would be permitted these little courtesies within the bounds of reason.”

“When Captain Kjellin had the Quickstep,” Mr. Skinner answered, “he never carried dead-heads.”

“You mean he didn’t have the courage to put the name on the passenger list and write D. H. after it.  However, please do not compare me with Captain Kjellin.”

“Well, you’re not making the time he made in the Quickstep.”

“I know it, sir.  My policy is to make haste slowly.  Kjellin hurried—­and see what happened to him.  He’ll never be fast again, either, with that short leg of his.”

“Captain Peasley, I am opposed to your levity.”

“Do you want me to worry and stew just because you do not happen to like me and keep picking on me, Mr. Skinner?  Why don’t you be a sport and give me a fair chance, sir?  You have all the best of it in any argument—­so why argue?”

“No more dead-heads,” Mr. Skinner warned.  “Hereafter, pay for your guests.”