y Ricks slid out to the edge of his swivel chair; with a hand
on each knee he gazed at his smiling son-in-law over the rims of his
spectacles. For fully a minute he remained motionless.

"Matt," he demanded suspiciously, "what the devil have you been up to?"

Matt raised a huge forefinger.

"Number one," he began: "I bought the Oriental Steamship Company's
freighter Narcissus, seventy-five hundred tons' register, for two
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in a month she'll be in
tiptop shape and ready for sea. I've paid twenty-five thousand dollars
down on her and I'll have to make a payment of twenty thousand dollars
on the twenty-sixth of September and twenty thousand dollars a month on
her thereafter until she, is paid for. And if I default on a payment for
more than thirty days before I've paid off half of the purchase price
the Oriental Steamship Company may, at its option, take the vessel away
from me."

Cappy Ricks smiled.

"Ah!" he breathed softly. "So you want help, eh? You finally did manage
to get into deep water close to the shore, and now you're yelling to
father to come through and save you, eh? Well, I'll do it, my boy,
because I think you made a bully buy; and she's worth it. I'll take over
your bargain for you and give you, say--er--ahem! we--harumph-h-h--say
twenty-five thousand dollars profit. Not so bad, eh? When I was your
age--" Cappy paused, open-mouthed. He had suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, no," he contradicted himself; "this isn't my foolish day--not by
a jugful! You owe me a lot of money on that promissory note you gave me
when we settled up for that Tillicum business--so I'll not give you any
money after all. I'll just take the contract of sale off your hands,
give you back the money you risked in the deal--and your promissory
note, cancelled." And Cappy Ricks sat back and clawed his whiskers
expectantly.

"Oh, I'm not in distress," Matt answered cheerfully. "On the contrary,
I'm going to take up that note before the week is out."

Once more Cappy slid out to the edge of his chair.

"Where are you going to get the money?" he demanded bluntly.

"I'm going to sell the Narcissus. The day I purchased her it was a moral
certainty that Europe was to be plunged into a terrible war; so the ink
wasn't dry on the contract before I was streaking it for New York. War
was declared by England on Germany on the fifth of August, and while
you'd be saying Jack Robinson every German