"Some Courteney boats too, hmm?"
"Why, eh"—a stare—"I shouldn't wonder. Yes. Humph! 'youngest captain on the river'—fact is, that's her. Lady as she is, and lovely as she is, she's a better steamboatman to-day than—than many a first-class one. She's nearer being my business partner than any man I ever hired."
"Partner's share of the swag?"
"No," laughed the giant, "but I'm leaving her the boats."
"Well," said "California," "all that's good preparation."
The huge man shot him a glance and the two pairs of blue eyes held each other. Then "California" smiled his winsomest and said: "Did you ever notice how much easier you can see through the ends of an iron pipe than through its sides?"
Gideon stared. "Humph! Any fool that wants to see through me may see and be—joyful. What do you think you see?"
"Oh, things you'd ought to thought of and never have."
"Why, you in'—Well, I'll be damned."
"Shouldn't wonder a bit," said "California" so amiably that the big man laughed.