"Well, you've got your nerve, I'd say. And then some. Do you think you can run my business better than I can myself?"
"If I did, I'd try to buy you out. I'm asking you to run my boats as well as your own and——"
"Be your hired girl."
Dickie supplied the words and went on angrily: "Say, the Lang boats were here a long time before you came. And they'll be here as long after you go. They have gone on their own hook ever since they went into the water. And that's the way they are going to stay. My dad never took orders from anybody. He ran his boats the way he pleased. He was independent. I'm the same way. And I want to tell you right now, I wouldn't sell out my independence to you or any other man."
McCoy crept back into the shadow of the fishing-boxes and making a wide detour went on into town. He was sorry he had listened. It wasn't a white thing to do. He liked Gregory. He was his friend. Then why, he asked himself, was he kind of glad that Dick had turned down his proposition?
CHAPTER IX
DIABLO LUCK
Busy days followed for Kenneth Gregory, and with the loyal support of Jack McCoy, much was accomplished.