t he was merely a two-spot in the big game which
was being played. But the expression on Mayo's face encouraged neither
levity nor sneers.

"I'll give you a thousand dollars expense money for your trip and will
talk job with you next year after you get your license back," proffered
the general manager.

Captain Mayo fixed flaming eyes on the tempter. "What special, private
reason have you got for wanting to bribe me?" demanded the young man,
with such heat that Fogg flinched. "You are making something very
mysterious out of what should be open and aboveboard. That may be Wall
Street tactics, Mr. Fogg, but it doesn't go with a sailor who has earned
a master's papers and is proud of it."

"Well, pass on then," directed Fogg. "There's a tug alongside to take
the underwriters back to Wood's Hole. Go along--to jail, or wherever it
is you'll fetch up."

"I shall stay aboard this ship as her captain until I am relieved
according to the formalities of the admiralty law," declared Captain
Mayo, with dignity. "I don't propose to run away from duty or
punishment, Mr. Fogg."

The general manager pursed a contemptuous mouth and departed from the
cabin. He went away on the tug without further word to Mayo.

During the next two days small craft buzzed about the stricken giant
like flies around a carcass. There were insurance men, wreckers with
plans and projects, sightseers, stockholders--and one visitor was
Captain Zoradus Wass.

"Nothing else to do just now, boy, except to come and sympathize with
you." He clucked his tongue against his teeth as he looked the steamer
over. It was condolence without words. "Now tell me the story of
it--with all the fine details," he demanded, after they were closeted
in the captain's cabin. He sat with elbows on his knees and gazed at the
floor during the recital, and he continued to gaze at the floor for some
time after Mayo had ceased speaking.

"I admit that the quartermaster let her off for just a minute--less than
a minute," repeated the young man. "I had only just looked away for an
instant. I helped him put her over. We couldn't have done more than cut
a letter S for a few lengths. But the more I think of it, the queerer it
seems. Two points off, almost in a finger-snap!"

"Tell that part of it over and over again, while I shut my eyes and get
it fixed in my mind as if I had seen it," requested Captain Wass. "Who
was there, where did they stand, and so forth and et cetry. When a thi