face. The very presence of this big man affected him to a degree wholly out of keeping with the fellow's station in life, as he saw it. But he needn't have been rude. “Look here, are you going to say anything to my father?”      

       “Certainly not.”      

       “Will the captain?”      

       “You will have to ask him yourself. Though you could hardly expect to keep it from him long, at this rate.”      

       “Well—he's so busy! He shuts himself up all day with Braker, his       secretary. The chap with the big spectacles. You see”—Kane laughed self-consciously; a naively boyish quality in him, kept him talking more eagerly than he knew—“the pater's reached the stage when he feels he ought to put himself right before the world. I guess he's been a great old pirate, the pater—you know, wrecking railroads and grabbing banks and going into combinations. Though it's just what all the others have done. From what I've heard about some of them—friends of ours, too!—you have to, nowadays, in business. No place for little men or soft men. It's a two-fisted game. This fellow spent a couple of years writing the pater's       autobiography:—seems funny, doesn't it!—and they're going over it together on this trip. That's why Braker came along; there's no time at home. The original plan was to have Braker tutor me. That was when I broke out of college. But, lord!....”      

       “You'll excuse me now,” said the mate.     

       Meantime the Manila Kid had sidled up to the captain.     

       “Say, Cap,” he observed cautiously, “wha'd you come down on Tex like that for?”      

       “Oh, come,” replied the captain testily, not turning, “don't bother me!”      

       “But what you expect us to do all this time on the river—play jackstraws?”      

       “I don't care what you do! Some trips they get up deck games.”      

       “Deck games!” The Kid sniffed.     

       “You'll find plenty to read in the library”      

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