awser had been made fast to the mainmast, the leathern
lungs of Mr. Gibney made due announcement of the fact to the
expectant Captain Hicks. "As soon as you feel you've got a grip
on her," he yelled, "just hold her steady so she won't drive
further up the beach when I get my anchor up. She'll come out
like a loose tooth at the tip of the flood."

The _Aphrodite_ forged slowly ahead, taking in the slack of the
hawser. Ten minutes passed but still the hawser lay limp across
the _Maggie's_ stern. Presently out of the fog came the voice of
Captain Dan Hicks.

"Flaherty! Flaher-tee! For the love of life, Jack, where are you?
Chuck me a line, Jack. My hawser's snarled in my screw and I'm
drifting on to the beach."

"Leggo your anchor, you boob," Jack Flaherty advised.

"I want a line an' none o' your damned advice," raved Hicks.

"'Tain't my fault if you get in too close."

"I'm bumping, Jack. I'm bangin' the heart out of her. Come on,
you cur, and haul me off."

"If I pull you off, Dan Hicks, will you leave that steamer
alone? You've had your chance and failed to smother it. Now let
me have a hack at her."

"It's a bargain, Jack. I'm not badly snarled; if you haul me out
to deep water I can shake the hawser loose. I'm afraid to try so
close in."

"Comin'," yelled Flaherty.

"Now, ain't that a raw deal?" Scraggs complained. "That junk
thief gets hauled off first."

"The first shall be last an' the last shall be first," Gibney
quoted piously. "Don't be a crab, Scraggs. Pray that the fog
don't lift."

Out of the fog there rose a great hubbub of engine room gongs,
the banging of the _Bodega's_ Lyle gun, and much profanity.
Presently this ceased, so Scraggs and Gibney knew Dan Hicks was
being hauled off at last. While they waited for further
developments, Scraggs sucked at his old pipe and Mr. Gibney
munched a French carrot. "If you hadn't canned McGuffey," the
latter opined, "we might have been able to back off under our own
power as soon as the tide is at flood. This delay is worryin'
me."

Following some fifteen minutes of kicking and struggling out in
the deep water, whither the _Bodega_ had dragged her, the
_Aphrodite_ at length freed herself of the clinging hawser;
whereupon she backed in again, cautiously reeving in the hawser
as she came. Presently, Dan Hicks, true to his promise to abandon
the prize to Jack Flaherty, turned his megaphone beachward and
shouted:

"_Yankee Prince_, ahoy! Cast off my h