“Well, it don’t matter to Joe!” said Huish. “Wot are Wiseman and t’other buffer to us?”
“A good deal, too,” said the captain. “We’re their heirs, I guess.”
“It is a great inheritance,” said Herrick.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” returned Davis. “Appears to me as if it might be worse. ’Tain’t worth what the cargo would have been, of course, at least not money down. But I’ll tell you what it appears to figure up to. Appears to me as if it amounted to about the bottom dollar of the man in ’Frisco.”
“’Old on,” said Huish. “Give a fellow time; ’ow’s this, umpire?”
“Well, my sons,” pursued the captain, who seemed to have recovered his assurance, “Wiseman and Wishart were to be paid for casting away this old schooner and its cargo. We’re going to cast away the schooner right enough; and I’ll make it my private business to see that we get paid. What were W. and W. to get? That’s more’n I can tell. But W. and W. went into this business themselves, they were on the crook. Now we’re on the square, we only stumbled into it; and that merchant has just got to squeal, and I’m the man to see that he squeals good. No, sir! there’s some stuffing to this Farallone racket after all.”
“Go it, cap’!” cried Huish. “Yoicks! Forrard! ’Old ’ard! There’s your style for the money! Blow me if I don’t prefer this to the hother.”
“I do not understand,” said Herrick. “I have to ask you to excuse me; I do not understand.”
“Well, now, see here, Herrick,” said Davis. “I’m going to have a word with you anyway upon a different matter, and it’s good that Huish should hear it too. We’re done with this boozing business, and we ask your pardon for it right here and now. We have to thank you for all you did for us while we were making hogs of ourselves; you’ll find me turn-to all right in future; and as for the wine, which I grant we stole from you, I’ll take stock and see you paid for it. That’s good enough, I believe. But what I want to point out to you is this. The old game was a risky game. The new game’s as safe as running a Vienna bakery. We just put this Farallone before the wind, and run till we’re well to looard of our port of departure, and reasonably well up with some other place where they have an American consul. Down goes the Farallone, and good-bye to her! A day or so in the boat; the consul packs us home, at Uncle Sam’s expense, to ’Frisco; and if that merchant don’t put the dollars down, you come to me!”
“But I thought—” began Herrick; and then broke out: “O, let’s get on to Peru!”