"And here is Mr. Smith," said Billy.
"How are you makin' it?" asked Smith, "and what'll you drink?"
But Gardiner was not drinking. It was so notoriously unhealthy to drink at Shanghai's place that few sober men were reckless enough to take a cocktail there.
"How are you off for men?" asked Gardiner. "Is business good?"
Smith shook his head.
"Men? There are too many of 'em! Now hell ain't fuller of devils, Mr. Gardiner, than what San Francisco is of sailors, and you know as well as me that with sailormen a drug in the market, I don't come out on top."
"To be sure," said Gardiner, "but I was thinking, as I came along, that you might get a ship for a young friend of mine."
"I'll be glad to do anythin' for any friend of yours," said Smith, "but as I'm tellin' you, 'tis as easy to be President of the United States as to do business with the streets full of men that lets on to be sailors. What kind of a job is your friend lookin' for?"
Gardiner laughed.
"I want him to go a voyage before the mast. It will do him good."