r.

"Then, just before the panic of 1907, old Ricks unloaded the Unicorn on
the Black Butte Company for ten thousand dollars more than he paid
for her--the old scamp! He's the shrewdest trader on the whole Pacific
Coast. He had no sooner sawed the Unicorn off on the Black Butte people
than the freight market collapsed in the general crash, and ever since
then the owners of the Lion and the Unicorn have been stuck with their
vessels. They're so big it's next to impossible to keep them running
coastwise in the lumber trade during a dull period, and they're not
big enough for the foreign trade. About the only thing they could do
profitably was to freight coal, coal freights have dropped until the
margin of profit is very meager; competition is keen and for the last
six months the Lion and the Unicorn have been laid up."

Matt Peasley smiled.

"They'll be hungry for the business," he said, "and I'm sailor enough to
see you'll be able to drive a bargain without much trouble."

"I ought to get them pretty cheap," Mr. Hayes admitted. "As you perhaps
know, a vessel deteriorates faster when laid up than she does in active
service; and an owner will do almost anything to keep her at sea,
provided he can make a modest rate of interest on her cost price or
present market value."

"Naturally," Matt Peasley observed as they rose from the table.

He purchased a cigar for Mr. Hayes, and as they retired to the buffet
car to continue their acquaintance something whispered to Matt not to
divulge to this somewhat garrulous stranger the news that he was a sea
captain lately in the employ of the Blue Star Navigation Company and
soon to enter that employ again. He had learned enough to realize that
Cappy's bank roll was threatened by this man from Seattle; that with
his defenses leveled, as it were, the old gentleman would prove an easy
victim unless warned of the impending attack.

Therefore, since Matt had not sought Mr. Hayes' confidence nor accepted
it under a pledge of secrecy, he decided that there could be nothing
unethical in taking advantage of it. Plainly the broker had jumped to
the conclusion that Matt was a common sailor--above the average in point
of intelligence, but so young and unsophisticated that one need
not bother to be reserved or cautious in his presence. Some vague
understanding of this had come to Matt Peasley; hence throughout the
remainder of the journey his conversations with the broker bore on every
other