"Ginseng, for a thousand," mourned Mr. Gibney. "Scraggsy, you're five dollars of my money to the good. Ginseng always comes packed in air-tight boxes."
He produced a can opener from the cabin locker and fell to his work on a corner of the hermetically sealed box. As he drove in the point of the can opener, he paused, hammer in hand, and gazed solemnly at Scraggs and McGuffey.
"Gentlemen" (again McGuffey nodded approvingly), "do you know what a vacuum is?"
"I know," replied the imperturbable McGuffey. "A vacuum is an empty hole that ain't got nothin' in it."
"Correct," said Mr. Gibney. "My head is a vacuum. Me talkin' about ginseng root! Why, I must have water on the brain! Ginseng be doggoned! It's opium!"
Captain Scraggs was forced to grab the seat of his chair in order to keep himself from jumping up and clasping Mr. Gibney around the neck.
"Forty dollars a pound," he gasped. "Gib—Gib, my dear boy—you've made us wealthy——"
Quickly Mr. Gibney ran the can opener around the edges of one corner of the zinc box, inserted the claws of the hammer into the opening, and with a quick, melodramatic twist, bent back the angle thus formed.
Mr. Gibney was the first to get a peep inside.