“For the love of Mike, do!” Cappy pleaded. “I'll be stuck in quarantine with you for a couple of days and we'll kill time drawing up a rough set of plans. And when that schooner yacht is ready, Matt, I'll tell you what I want you to do.”
“What, Cappy?”
“Send the bill to grandpa, Matthew!”
“If I hadn't been a case-hardened old fool I'd have cheered you on when you wanted to build that schooner yacht last year. I'd have saved myself a world of grief.”
He placed his hand gently on Matt's shoulder and his face was ineffably sad as he continued: “Of course, with you away and your fate undecided, as it were, Matt, that infernal Skinner wasn't worth two hoots in a hollow. Why, the boy flopped around the office like a rooster with its head off, and as a result I've had to come out of my retirement and keep an eye on things. Thank God, I can let go now. Really, Matt, you have no idea how I long to separate myself from the hurly-burly of California street. What I want is peace and seclusion—”
“You can have my share of that commodity for the remainder of my natural life,” Matt laughed happily, “I want noise and people. I want screaming and yelling and fighting and risks and profits and losses and liars and scoundrels and honest men all inextricably mixed.” He tossed his great sun-tanned arms above his head. “Lord, I want Life,” he half shouted.
Cappy sighed. These young pups! When they grow to see life as old dogs—
“Well, Matt, all I've got to say is that the first man that butts into my private office and starts unloading a cargo of grief on me, is going to get busted between the eyes with a paper weight. I'm through with grief and woe. I don't give a hoot what happens to the world or anybody in it. I want peace and a rest. I can afford it and wouldn't I be a first-class idiot not to take it while the taking is good, Matt?”
“No more mixing in the shipping end, eh?” Matt asked hopefully.
Cappy raised his right hand solemnly. “Never again, Matt. I'm through with ships and sailors and cargoes and the whole cussed Blue Star fleet can sink and be damned to it, but I'll not lift a hand to save it. I'm THROUGH.”