as. Once he drew a dollar from his pocket and
started back. But no. What was a dollar to him? He knew where there
were more. That wasn't it. He put the money in his pocket and walked
on.

Dan's mental processes leading to a determination to help Captain
Barney were too clouded for clear interpretation, but he knew there was
no more uncertainty in his mind after he had sought the Captain out and
offered to put him on board the _Kentigern_.

Hodges fairly wept his gratitude. "Dan, Dan, you say you can put me
aboard the _Kentigern_! You'll save my business if you do. I don't
care about the towing part, because if I can get aboard and pilot her
in, I can hand the towing over to those who'll take care of me. Dan,
you're a good boy. How'll you do it?"

"No time to tell now," said Dan. "Meet me at Pier 3 in an hour."

"Say," cried Captain Barney, as Dan hurried away; "how much'll it be?
Not too much--"

Dan stopped short.

"Nothing!" he roared. "It's--it's a Christmas present."

CHAPTER III

A FIGHT IN THE DARK

The short gray December twilight was creeping over the bay as Dan
pulled out from the Battery basin in a boat which he kept there for
recreative jaunts about the harbor. Hard pulling and cold it was, but
the boatman bent his back and shot up the East River with the strength
of the young giant he was. He could see Captain Barney, muffled to the
ears, stamping impatiently about on the end of the designated pier.
Without a word he swung his boat in such a position that the Captain
could drop into it.

Barney was delighted, so far forgetting himself, indeed, as to attempt
to establish cordial understanding.

"Hello, my boy," he said genially, "we're a-goin' to fix 'em!" Then
noting a blank expression on Dan's face, his jaws closed with a click
and he lowered himself from the pier and into the boat without further
words, while Dan shoved out into the river and started for the pier
above, where Captain Jim Skelly's tug, the _John Quinn_, was lying.
She had steam up and was all ready for her journey to meet the
_Kentigern_. That vessel had been reported east of Fire Island and
would be well across the bar by eight o'clock. She would anchor on the
bar for the night, and it was there that Captain Jim Skelly meant to
board her in order to forestall any possible scheme that wily Captain
Barney might devise to gain the bridge of the freighter.

As Dan paddled noiselessly around the other sid