n aroused by the multitude of signs all around indicative of a warm
session, "suppose you sketch your little adventure for us, Perk. And I
want to say that Oscar was pretty much of a fool if he reckoned on
snatching this boat away from an old fighter like _you_, when you
had a nice new machine-gun to back up your claims."

"Shucks! he showed the right stuff for a scrapper," expostulated the
honest Perk, anxious to give credit where credit was due. "We stopped
the barrage at one point to have a little chin, but unable to agree, we
jest started all over again. An' I kinder guess I must've notched the
critter some, for he hauled off an' skinned the cat by kickin' out. I
was jest tellin' myself it sure turned out to be a good thing he didn't
have any Chinks aboard at the time, 'cause they might've lost the number
o' their mess in the racket--I'm willin' to stop the yeller boys from
crashin' Unc' Sam's gates, but I don't crave the job o' sendin' the poor
dicks along to their worshipped ancestors, not me."

"Well, get a move on you, Perk, and let's have the story of your
fight--did he drop down, and have it out with you on the water; or was
he circling above your head all the while?"

"If you'll take another squint at these bullet marks, old hoss," said
Perk, reproachfully, "you'll see they passed along on the level. Yeah,
he was a square shooter I want to say and some day I'm hopin' me'n Oscar
c'n shake hands, since the war's long past an' German is being taught
again in our public schools."

Then he launched forth in a graphic, if terse, description of the
remarkable battle that had so recently taken place. The others listened
with intense interest, for if Perk did have a way of cutting his
sentences short and never going into lengthy descriptions, nevertheless
he made his points tell, and kept his audience of three breathing fast
with the thrill they received.

"Now let's get a move on," Jack was saying after Perk had finished the
exciting description of his adventure, "and go over all this mess of
cases, so these boys can give us a little document to say how we turned
over that number of boxes to their charge, together with the sloop.
McGrath here used to run the engine of a tug in New York harbor and is
well able to manage this rusty cub here--we found it capable of doing a
day's work, you know Perk, on the way here."

Jack's word was law, since he was in command. Accordingly they started a
systematic check of ever