ok a long turn to seaward. The Mate took advantage of his being away
and wiped off the paint on the burned patch, which was beginning to
smell abominably. Fresh paint was hurriedly put on, and the stages
were again aboard when the _Active_, finding nothing to interest her on
the western horizon, returned--again to the lee quarter.

"Saay, Cap., kan't we do a deal; kan't we meet somewhere?" said
Cutbush, conciliatory. "Say five hundred or four-eighty, 'n I'll toss
ye for th' hawser?"

"I can't do it, Capt'in.... I'd lose my job if I went," (here the Old
Man paused to damn the steersman's eyes, and to tell him to keep her
full) "if I went that length."

The tow-boat again sheered off, and her skipper busied himself with his
telescope.

"Wall, Cap., she may be a smart barque, but I'm darn ef ye can beat her
though the Golden Gate the way th' wind is. Saay! Make it
three-fifty? What the hell's about a fifty dollars. Darn me! I've
blown that in half-hour's poker!"

"Aye, aye! That's so; but I'm no' takin' a hand in that game. Set the
stays'ls, Mister, 'n get a pull on the fore 'n main sheets!"

We went about the job, and the _Active_ took another turn, this time to
the south'ard. Munro, aloft loosing the staysails, reported a steamer
away under the land. She was sending up a dense smoke, and that caused
the Old Man to account her another tow-boat out seeking.

"That'll fetch him," he said to the Mate, "'n if he offers again I'll
close. Three-fifty's pretty stiff, but we can't complain."

"Egad, no!" said the Mate; "if I'd been you I'd have closed for five
hundred, an' be done with it."

"Aye, aye, no doubt! no doubt! But ye're not a Scotchman looking after
his owners' interest."

Soon we saw the _Active_ smoking up and coming towards us with 'a bone
in her mouth.' Cutbush had seen the stranger's smoke, and he lost no
time. He seemed to be heading for our starboard side, and we thought
the game was up; but the Old Man kept off imperceptibly, and again the
tug came to port.

"Changed yer mind, Cap.? Guess I must be gwine back. Got t' take the
_Drumeltan_ up t' Port-Costa in th' mornin'. What d'ye say t' three
hundred?"

The Old Man called the Mate, and together they held a serious
consultation, with many looks to windward, aloft, and at the compass.
The stranger was rapidly approaching, and showed herself to be a
yellow-funnelled tow-boat, with a business-like foam about her bows.
Spreckel's