a vacuum. Me talkin'
about ginseng root! Why, I must have water on the brain! Ginseng
be doggoned! _It's opium!_"

Captain Scraggs was forced to grab the seat of his chair in order
to keep himself from jumping up and clasping Mr. Gibney around
the neck.

"Forty dollars a pound," he gasped. "Gib--Gib, my _dear_
boy--you've made us wealthy----"

Quickly Mr. Gibney ran the can opener around the edges of one
corner of the zinc box, inserted the claws of the hammer into the
opening, and with a quick, melodramatic twist, bent back the
angle thus formed.

Mr. Gibney was the first to get a peep inside.

[Illustration: "'_Great snakes,' he yelled--and fell back
against the cabin wall_"]

"Great snakes!" he yelled, and fell back against the cabin wall.
A hoarse scream of rage and horror broke from Captain Scraggs.
In his eagerness he had driven his head so deep into the box that
he came within an inch of kissing what the box contained--which
happened to be nothing more nor less than a dead Chinaman! Mr.
McGuffey, always slow and unimaginative, shouldered the skipper
aside, and calmly surveyed the ghastly apparition.

"Twig the yellow beggar, will you, Gib?" said McGuffey; "one eye
half open for all the world like he was winkin' at us an'
enjoyin' th' joke."

Not a muscle twitched in McGuffey's Hibernian countenance. He
scratched his head for a moment, as a sort of first aid to
memory, then turned and handed Mr. Gibney ten dollars.

"You win, Gib. It's Oriental goods, sure enough."

"Robber!" shrieked Captain Scraggs, and flew at Mr. Gibney's
throat. The sight reminded McGuffey of a terrier worrying a
mastiff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gibney was still so unnerved at the
discovery of the horrible contents of the box that, despite his
gigantic proportions, he was well-nigh helpless.

"McGuffey, you swab," he yelled. "Pluck this maritime outlaw off
my neck. He's tearin' my windpipe out by th' roots."

McGuffey choked Captain Scraggs until he reluctantly let go Mr.
Gibney; whereupon all three fled from the cabin as from a
pestilence, and gathered, an angry and disappointed group, out on
deck.

"Opium!" jeered Captain Scraggs, with tears of rage in his voice.
"Ginseng! You and your imagination, you swine, you! Get off my
ship, you lout, or I'll murder you."

Mr. Gibney hung his head.

"Scraggsy--an' you, too, McGuffey--I got to admit that this here
is one on Adelbert P. Gibney. I--I----"

"Oh, hear him," shrilled Capt