p
his hat. "You can keep your big white elephant another eight years, Mr.
MacCandless. Perhaps some principal will come along then and make you
another offer; and in the interim you can charge off about one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars interest on the money tied up in the
Narcissus. Fine business--I don't think!" He nodded farewell and started
for the door.

"But you say you have but fifty thousand dollars," MacCandless
protested.

"I said I'd have to get two hundred and fifty thousand dollars more.
Well, I'll do it."

"Quite a sum to raise these days," MacCandless remarked doubtfully.

"Well, if you'll give me a sixty-day option on the Narcissus at two
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and agree to do the repairs
on her, including dry-docking, cleaning and painting her up to the water
line, I'll take a ten-thousand-dollar chance, Mr. MacCandless, that I
can raise the money."

"Do you mean you'll give the Oriental Steamship Company ten thousand
dollars for a sixty-day option?"

"I do; and I'll pay for the vessel as I raise the remainder of the
money. Ten thousand dollars down for the option, to apply on the
purchase price, of course, if the deal goes through, and to be forfeited
to you if I fail to make the next payment on time."

"What will the next payment be?" the cautious MacCandless demanded.

"Twenty thousand dollars a month, with interest at six per cent. in
deferred payments. You might as well be earning six per cent. on her as
have her rusting holes in her bottom down there in Mission Bay. As she
lies, you're losing at least six per cent. interest on her."

"There's reason in that," MacCandless answered thoughtfully. "You to
insure the vessel as our interest may appear, bill of sale in escrow;
and if you default for more than thirty days on any payment before we
have received fifty per cent. of the purchase price you lose out and we
get our ship back."

"Sharp business, but I'll take it, Mr. MacCandless. After I've paid half
the money I can mortgage her for the remainder and get out from under
your clutches. Put the buck up to your directors, get their approval to
the option and contract of sale, notify me, and I'll be right up with
a certified check for ten thousand dollars." And, without giving
MacCandless time to answer, Matt took his departure.

"If I talked ten minutes with that man," he soliloquized, "he'd have
the number of my mess. He'd realize what a piker I was and terminat