shouted. "My mon, d'ye hear? Ye'll leave him alone, ye vermin! The crook thot opens his face at him will get a cracked sconce! I”

From a dark corner whizzed a ball of bread adrip with cold pork gravy-smashed against Murfeson's cheek. A chuckle, broad and impudent, rattled around the stinking hole-but suddenly stopped. For out hissed Murfeson's arm, and ckk.-the slum rat nearest him reeled and tumbled, with a shattered nose, gargling blood.

"Pass thot on to th' fellow who threw his brain at me!" Murfeson whooped. And he stamped up the ladder, back to Mack, who was still hugging his dirty dishes with one arm, dully rubbing his smitten cheek and emptily listening to Annie, who was saying:

"You didn't mean to disobey father. You only wanted to be obliging, didn't you -what's your name? Mack?"

Murfeson thrust out his lower lip and squinted hard at Mack. "D'ye mind, daughter, what I've said aboot these bums?" he roared. "They may have fine outwards, but there's nothing underneath! Look at this prime beast! A fine lump o' flesh he is, and wi' a fair face; but for a' thot, he's a fool an' a coward! A sheep in man-skin! Heh! Come away from the vermin!"

Annie tossed her pretty head angrily. Old Murfeson had touched her in a tender spot. For helping poor devils was an old hobby of hers. Many a prosperous young fellow of the Northland owed his start in life to a kind word and a purse from Annie Murfeson.

"Really?" There came a glint into her eyes, and a hard line at the corners of her smile.

Her father subsided into an indistinct rumble and lumbered off to inspect his cattle. The girl shot a sidelong glance of triumph at him, then fell to instructing Mack in the ways of good behavior. Mack listened as a weathercock listens to the winds that veer it.

The rest of the night I worried. Murfeson's trip to the fo'c'sle had been a blunder. You can pummel sailors and they'll touch their caps to you next morning or even jump after you if you fall overboard; but you mustn't split the nose of a yeggman who happens to ship as a bullpusher. Landlubbers are sensitive about such matters of etiquette. They have a

habit of returning the compliment with interest and costs. So I felt in my bones that Murfeson was in for a bad trip.

Before turning in I drifted around to see that all was snug for the night. Up forward I ran into Annie and Mack. Annie was shaking a finger under the Discouraged Man's nose and saying sternly:

"You mustn't let those wicked men bully you. Stand up for your rights! You're a big, strong man. You can do it."

Mack flung up his magnificent arms and mumbled: "Oh, what's the use? There's nothing to be gained! I take things as they come. Just as they come."

"That's contemptible!" Annie's cheeks flamed. "No man would say that!"

A minute Mack looked into her face dreamily. Then the little flicker of light in his eyes died out, and he shuffled off toward the fo'c'sle.

"I can't make him out." Annie stared after him, and beat a firm little fist against a soft little palm.

"Listen!" I commanded. And I told her all about Mack. "You mustn't be foo hard with him," I finished. "There's no spunk left in him

"There's spunk left in every man," flashed Annie, "as long as his stomach and lungs are sound."

"You're wrong there," I protested. "I've seen lots of down-and-outers, in my day, Miss Annie

She wasn't listening. She was murmuring grimly: "I'll poke him up! Father needs a foreman on his new Montana ranch. I'll offer this Mack the job-if he'll brace up!" And with that she clapped me on the shoulder, as man to man, and flitted off.

"You're in for a hard jolt, my little lady!" I wagged my head-and went to bed for an uneasy sleep.

At Quebec next morning-and not a bull-pusher! All of Murfeson's greenbacks couldn't budge those Frenchies from their wood stoves. In a rage Murfeson telegraphed to Sydney, which lies on Cabot Strait where we would pass into the Banks. But when we reached this, the last port before the open Atlantic, there came out to us in our agent's smack only two stiff old Swedes! Two Swedes and Mack! And we needed six men!

Murfeson raved. He asked the captain for the two stokers who had been helping

us. But the captain refused, for we had reached open water.

"You'll have to pitch in and hustle hay, Malcomson!" Murfeson growled. "Go call thot Mack!"

The Nova Britania swung eastward and snouted heavily into the slow, gray swells. With a heavy heart I headed for the fo'c'sle.

At the hatch I halted abruptly. Up from its reeking darkness rose a broken rumble of snarls and curses. A saw-edged voice was hissing: "Leave that dirty Canuck to me! He cracked me, and I'm going to give him his

There followed a sterner voice: "Beat old Murfeson up-but no knifin', Pinky! I ain't goin' t' have Scotland Yard pinchin' us and lookin' at my thumb-mark. No sir! Sssss!"

The soft hiss came as my foot scraped the top of the fo'c'sle ladder. I peered down upon the six ruffians who had deserted

us.

Mack was not there; and when I asked his whereabouts a hoarse guffaw answered

me.

Straight to Murfeson I went and told him what I had overheard. The giant chuckled: "So th' vermin's tryin' to gi'e old Murfeson a chill, eh? Well-a-well! Th' auld mon doesn't know how to shiver! Let 'em try teaching me! Now, where's thot Mack I sent ye after?"

I scurried off and found him-in an empty stall, shaking out some hay and spreading a blanket over it.

"They kicked me out of the fo'c'sle." He patted down the blanket, avoiding my eyes. "Anyhow, the air's better up

here

"Oh, you pulp!" I yelled, and dragged him off like a bag of meal to our waterpails.

"Hello! What's up?" It was Miss Annie. She was leaning against some bales of hay, her wide gray eyes dancing.

I told her, and her merriment vanished. "Bunk him with you in the petty officers' cabin!" she commanded. "And now," she turned sternly upon Mack, "you must brace up! You must! If you do, I'll get you some decent work. Tell me what you

I stood by helpless and hopping mad; for the day was fast waning. But little good it did me to glare! The girl had entered upon a long catechism. How old was he? Did he like bookkeeping? What would he do, if he had a steady job at twenty a week? Could he handle colts? Did he drink? Why was he loafing in a sailors' supply store at Montreal? Weren't there more good jobs in Canada than there were men? Wouldn't it be a good thing for him to marry a sensible woman? Wouldn't she make him do something better than bullpushing?

She reddened, as I grinned and hooted. But in a minute she was gloating again over her new toy. That's what Rawlins washer new toy! She would make a ranch foreman of him, marry him off to some stout ranch cook, and give him, as wedding present, a white cottage back of the barn, with maybe a pig and a cow thrown in. It was an old trick of hers, and a sweet one.

Pretty soon Mack was flushing hotly under the memories she was stirring up. . "Dad's bought a patch of white pine out British Columbia way," she observed. "Did you ever work in the woods, Rawlins?"

That was too much! You remember Mack's eighteen carloads of hot wood ashes? Mack fled with a moan.

"Now see here, Miss Annie!" I started to protest. But my words strangled in my throat. A deep, drawn-out cry arose from somewhere up forward and chilled me with a nameless fear.

"What's that?" Annie gasped. We ran.

There was a scurrying on the officers' deck, and the ring of a sharp order. At the foot of a ladder we came upon Murfeson, choking and twitching his mighty fingers. Over him the ship surgeon was already leaning.

"Broken shoulder!" declared the surgeon. "How did you do it?"

Murfeson's sound right arm pointed to a heavy crowbar that lay near him. "They got me the fo'c'sle crowd-dropped the bar on me from the upper deck-I'll break 'em-all of 'em

He fainted.

We carried him to his cabin. Then I stared over the lurching rail at the three thousand miles of water ahead, and

wondered. A big herd of steers, three men short, a broken-spirited bull-pusher, my big boss crippled, six criminals with a knifing grudge against the Murfesons and the things of Murfeson!

"Well, Mack," I snorted, "the Murfesons are giving you a fine chance to show what's in you! You're going to have your hands full and your head too

"I'm not going to mix in the Murfesons' rows," Mack mumbled uneasily.

"Now don't be a fool!" I snapped. "Miss Annie and the old man will find a nice berth for you on a ranch if you stand by them. It's the chance of a lifetime, man! Why, in another year you may be earning a hundred dollars a month."

Mack shook his head drearily. "I take things as they come." He started back to his water-pails. "There's no use of fighting and scheming! It's all blind luck, and all bad

In the wane of the next afternoon the stupendous sheer cliffs of Cape Race began to blanket the far northeast with their melancholy blue and gray. I went forward to inquire after Murfeson and to seek advice from Annie; for the sea was lifting and I dreaded the coming night. The surgeon said my employer was resting quietly. Annie and I fell to discussing whether we should again ask the captain for a stoker to help us. As we talked, somebody dashed past behind us yelling, "I'll fix 'em! I'll beat 'em up!"

It was Murfeson, in a delirium; and after him the surgeon and three sailors.

A deckhand blocked the frenzied giant's way for one instant only. Then a deckhand lay stunned in Murfeson's wake. With a dry little sob, Annie ran. I followed. Straight for the forward stalls of the main deck Murfeson plunged, half-dressed, halfcrazy. He reached the other cattle boss and his six thugs just as the ship's captain overtook him-one second too late.

Murfeson leaped at the nearest gangster. Out shot his terrible, unmaimed fist, and sent the fellow to the filthy deck.

"Hit me with a crowbar, eh?" Murfeson yelled thickly; then a great knife flashed out of the half-darkness and, with a deep, sucking groan, my employer fell, and lay very still on the reeking straw.

We saw a crouching form with the knife slink away toward the shelter of some hay bales.

"Stop or I'll fire!" the captain shouted. The man laughed back hoarsely and slipped between the bars of a stall. The captain fired, and from the gloom a hideous yell rang out, followed by another flash. "You" the captain shrieked, ran stride, staggered, and pitched headlong against Murfeson, a bullet through his brave heart.

"Run for men!" the surgeon shouted. "That crowd is out for murder now! They know they'll hang, if we land them in London; so they're going to take their chances on a mutiny. Quick! Quick!"

Blindly I ran. And first I stumbled upon Mack. He was at the rail, gazing with strange anguish at the bald, titanic precipices of Cape Race, which were glowering in wrathful reds and ochres under the late slant of the sullen sun. In a flash I remembered! We were riding over those very shoals which, eleven years before, had swallowed Mack's father and the Rawlins fortunes! Here were the waters that had broken Mack's spirit!

I shrieked the disaster in his ears, commanded him to come help us. And what did he do? Looked at me blankly, touched his cap, and mumbled, "Yes sir! I'll come, sir!"

All of a sudden Annie appeared, her cheeks white. She turned bruskly to Mack and said: "Rawlins, we're in a bad fix. What had we better do?"

Mack's jaw dropped. "It's awful!" he gasped. "I-I hope they catch the murderer

"They?" Annie cried angrily. "They? They? Who are they? What I want to know is, what you you are going to do about it?"

"I? Why, I-" blundered Mack, "I haven't anything to do with it. I'm only a bull-pusher

"You have nothing to do with it?" The girl shook her fist man-wise under Mack's nose. "Why, you murdered the captain! Yes, you! You let that gang bully you around. You forgot your work and your boss. That made father angry, as it should. And that started the whole terrible row. Now, what are you going to do about it, murderer?"

Mack fell in a huge heap and cried, with a high-pitched indrawing of the breath; and his enormous shoulders shook like slack rigging in a gale. The sight unnerved me a little, but it softened Annie. The girl

stroked his big, calloused hand as you might stroke the paw of a wounded dog.

"Come! Come!" she cheered him now. "We three must guard our lives and our herd. Those criminals mean mischief. The first mate, who is captain now, wants to head for St. John's, turn the gang over to the police, and put father in hospital." "A mighty fine scheme!" I broke in jubilantly.

She

"Not for the Murfesons!" Annie wheeled upon me curtly. "Father will not be marooned two months in a fishing town! He has a hundred businesses to attend to. And I won't twiddle my thumbs until Christmas in Newfoundland fog!" turned to Mack now, just as if I had stopped living all of a sudden. "I've planned to spend the winter in London. You must get me there. I'll make it worth your while. Now if we go ashore at St. John's, a London broker will market this herd. That will cost us six hundred dollars. Wouldn't you like that money?"

"Miss Annie," I roared, "this is crazy talk! The new captain is running this ship.

If he says to St. John's, it's to St. John's for us!"

"The new captain has given no orders!" Annie shot back. "He may any minute, though. So you must hurry, Rawlins

"What-how can I do anything?" Mack

cried.

"That's for you to find out, sir. You are boss now!" Annie thrust into a deep pocket and pulled out a check-book. "But this may help you to think." She fished up a fountain-pen and scribbled. "There you are! One hundred dollars down. Now run quick to the captain! And no stopping at St. John's!" She touched his shoulder an instant and was gone.

What happened afterward runs through my memory in a blurred streak, like the water past the ship's side. Unsteadily the new cattle-boss clutched the ship's rail and gazed across the lifting swells to the sinister promontories. Up from the southeast gigantic streamers of scud had been blowing, such as haunt those austere waters through the eternities. The clouds raced low, blanketing the entire sky save along the