“‘Our fortunes are made,’ says Buck.
“‘Wait a bit,’ says I.
“Next morning we were on the doorstep to the tick and the darkie showed us in.
“‘Well, boys,’ says Pat, coming into the room dressed to go out, with a plug hat stuck on the back of his head and the butt of another cigar in the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, boys,’ says he, ‘you’re up to time and I’m waiting to meet you on this proposition; it’s not that I want to be into it,’ he says, ‘but for the sake of me sister Mary—God rest her soul—I’m going to give you a chance in life. I’m a bit in the shipping way myself, and I’ve got a schooner lying off Tiburon waiting for cargo, and I’ll give you the use of her to run down to the Islands, and,’ says he, ‘if you get the better of that Chink I’ll give you the schooner for keeps.’
“‘What do you mean by getting the better of him?’ asks Buck.
“‘Well,’ says Pat, ‘it’s in my mind, thinking things over, that he’s maybe got the better of you. Maybe I’m wrong—but there it is, and how do you like the proposition?’
“We liked it all right, but he hadn’t finished and goes on:
“‘Whilst you’re on the job,’ he says, ‘you can take a cargo for me down to Malakā to Sanderson, a chap I deal with, and bring back a cargo of copra; you won’t want any cargo space for pearls, and Malakā is on your way there or back.’
“We didn’t mind that and said so.
“I’d told Pat I was pretty well up in navigation, and we all starts out together to look at the schooner, taking the ferry boat over to Tiburon and Pat giving us his ideas as we went.