Mr. Gibney took refuge in a lie. "Of course I do. I was just
kiddin' you, my hearty." (Here Mr. Gibney's glance rested on two
long heavy sugar-pine boxes, or shipping cases. Their joints at
all four corners were cunningly dove-tailed and wire-strapped.)
"I was a bit interested in them two boxes, an' seein' as this is a
free country, I thought I'd just step in an' make a bid on them,"
and with the words, Mr. Gibney walked over and busied himself in
an inspection of the two crates in question.

The fact of the matter was that so embarrassed was Mr. Gibney at
the exposition of his ignorance that he desired to hide the
confusion evident in his sun-tanned face. So he stooped over the
crates and pretended to be exceedingly interested in them,
hauling and pushing them about and reading the address of the
consignee who had failed to call for his goods. The crates were
both consigned to the Gin Seng Company, 714 Dupont Street, San
Francisco. There were several Chinese characters scrawled on the
top of each crate, together with the words, in English: "Oriental
Goods."

As he ceased from his fake inspection of the two boxes, the King
of the Forty Thieves approached and surveyed the sailor with an
even greater amount of distrust and suspicion than ever. Mr.
Gibney was annoyed. He disliked being stared at, so he said:

"Hello, Blumenthal, my bully boy. What's aggravatin' _you_?"

Blumenthal (since Mr. Gibney, in the sheer riot of his
imagination elected to christen him Blumenthal, the name will
probably suit him as well as any other) came close to Mr. Gibney
and drew him aside. In a hoarse whisper he desired to know if Mr.
Gibney attended the auction with the expectation of bidding on
any of the packages offered for sale. Seeking to justify his
presence, Mr. Gibney advised that it was his intention to bid in
everything in sight; whereupon Blumenthal proceeded to explain to
Mr. Gibney how impossible it would be for him, arrayed against
the Forty Thieves, to buy any article at a reasonable price.
Further: Blumenthal desired to inform Mr. Gibney that his (Mr.
Gibney's) efforts to buy in the "old horses" would merely result
in his running the prices up, for no beneficent purpose, since it
was ever the practice of the Forty Thieves to permit no man to
outbid them. Perhaps Mr. Gibney would be satisfied with a fair
day's profit without troubling himself to hamper the Forty
Thieves and interfere with their combination, and with the