The shipper fairly gasped. "You got those oysters out in that deep water?" he said. Then he asked, "What are you going to do with them now that you have them?"
"That's just what I want to talk about, Captain," said Alec. "I've got the oysters. You've got the boats. If we could just make some sort of agreement—if we could somehow combine forces—why, Captain, if you'll just go ahead and dredge oysters for yourself until you get on your feet again, and then dredge a few for me——" Alec stopped, embarrassed. He did not know how to say what he wanted to say, now that the time had come to say it.
The shipper looked at him with the old piercing glance that had seemed to bore through Alec so long ago. "Boy," he said, "what are you trying to do—give me those oysters after the way you've toiled and studied and saved to get them?"
"Oh! Captain, if you'll only take them," said Alec, "I'll be the happiest fellow in the world. They are yours—every one you need, even if you need them all."
"God bless you, lad," cried the shipper, blowing his nose violently, and beginning to pace the floor. "How I would like to take them. Why, they'd save me, lad. They'd save me."
"Then take them. That's why I got them, Captain Rumford,—to save you."
The captain turned and faced his assistant. "I will take them," he said. "I will take them. But I'll take them on one condition. I take them as your partner." He hesitated a moment. His face paled a bit. "Maybe you wouldn't want a broken-down old man as a partner," he said, "an old man already behind the times."
"Captain Rumford," said Alec, "you are jesting. Surely you don't mean that you want me as your partner in business. Why, I have no money now, and I have nothing, sir, but a little oyster-bed to put up against your great oyster grounds and your boats. It's a wonderful opportunity, sir, but it wouldn't be fair to you to take it."
"Humph!" said the shipper. "Not fair, when I shall owe to you everything I have in the world. I am the one who is penniless; for without these oysters you offer I am a pauper. Now will you become my partner?"