also wept--but from other causes,
to wit--grief and rage.

"I'm happy to have you with us again, Mr. MacLean," Matt saluted the
second mate. "While your courage and loyalty might be questioned, your
ability may not. So the crimp swindled you, eh? Told you he wanted you
for another ship and then switched the papers on you, eh?"

"You should never trust a crimp, Angus," Mr. Murphy warned him. "And you
should never do business with them unless you're cold sober. Let this be
a lesson to you, my lad. Never be a drinking man and you'll never have
to go to a crimp for a snug berth. Run along to your old room, now,
Angus, and shift into some dry clothes, if you expect to finish the
voyage."

"I'll gie ye ma worrd I'll desert in th' discharrgin' port!" Mr. MacLean
burred furiously. "Ye hae me noo, body an' bones--"

"Aye, and we'll keep you, Angus. Have no fear of that. And you'll not
desert in the discharging port. I'll see to that," Matt Peasley assured
him.

When the last man had been assisted aboard Matt signaled for the tug he
had engaged. By the time she had hooked on and towed them over the bar
three of the seamen were sober enough to assist the skipper and the
mates in getting all plain sail, with the exception of the square sails,
on her, and, with a spanking nor'west breeze on her quarter she rolled
away into the horizon.

Despite the fact that the Retriever's bottom was rather foul with marine
growth, and the further fact that her master had to lay her head under
her wing in a blow which, with an ordinary cargo, he would have bucked
right into, the run to Antofagasta was made in average time. And when
Matt Peasley went ashore to report by cable to his owners he discovered
that Cappy Ricks had provided him with a cargo of nitrate for Makaweli.

"What did I tell you, sir?" Mr. Murphy growled when the captain informed
him of the owners' orders. "I tell you, sir, the dirtiest cargo Cappy
Ricks can find is too good for us. Praise be, the worst we can get at
Makaweli is a sugar cargo."

Mr. Murphy's grudge against nitrate lay in the annoyance incident to
taking on the cargo properly. Nitrate is very heavy and cannot, like
sugar, be loaded flush with the hatches, thus rendering shifting of the
cargo impossible. In loading nitrate a stout platform must be erected
athwart ship, above the keelsons, in order that the foundation of the
cargo may be laid level; for, as the sacked nitrate is piled, the pile
must be drawn