J. Allan Dunn

“ He was still the sailor but now he was eminently the commander.
“Hooper of Huapai, all right,” commented Manning to himself. “I’ll warrant Butler would have listened to him if he had gone to him in those duds. And the sentry would have passed him. Their loss is my gain.”
“What luck?” Hooper hailed him.
“Men are scarce but you’ll be better able to handle that than I can. But I doubt if we’ll be able to pick our crew. I cabled my bank in San Francisco. The money will be here by noon. And I’ve got word of a schooner. ”

“ The schooner has got to go on the marine railroad. She’s foul. It will take several days to outfit and get the crew together. I’ll start Thompson on the provisioning end in a couple of days. He’s well enough now to make out lists. See if you can get permission to start cleaning the schooner right away. They can’t lose on that. If the charter money is put up they ought not to kick. And I’ll scout for men.”
MEN came slowly though they offered big wages. Two Hooper practically shanghaied from a ship in the harbor. ”

“ Then we’ll go after the ship, the stores and the crew.”
“It isn’t going to be easy to find ship or men, I’m afraid,” said Hooper. “But we may have luck. You, Fong and your three men will be practically passengers. I’ll try and land a mate to share watch and work with me on the navigation end. Eight sailormen, if we can scare up that many, will be enough. With Thompson, that brings the crew to sixteen. I’d like to get a few more men who would be good in a scrap. There’s Tiburi and there are Steiner and his crowd. They don’t know the war’s over and they may show fight. ”

“ Few of them could have been described as able seamen but Hooper saw promise enough in them for him to sign them. Sometimes a good man showed after an indifferent one had been taken, but the partners decided that an extra man or so would do no harm.
They were a mixed-pickle lot, the sailors, American, English, Finn, Swede, Dutch, negro and Kanakas. Fong supplied an engineer for the kicker engine that was capable of eight knots and meant much in crossing windless patches of sea on both sides of the equator, and bucking currents. ”

“ Ten minutes later Steiner came in with two men and went through us and the traderoom. They took everything of value we had, including all papers. They took the stores away. Steiner lifted the hatch and peered into the hold. They fastened the ports and then the skylight and went away again.
“The pearls are safe, Manning. Those transverse beams won’t rot, even under water, for fifty years. They are selected oak. The rubber might rot a bit but it will hang together in the oilskin package and the foil and wax paper will preserve the pearls. ”

“ I’ll have to keep them busy. One thing will be target practise. I want to see how they can shoot. We may be able to pacify Tiburi; the news of the papers I brought along may change the attitude of Steiner, but it is as well to be prepared.”
He said this while Edwards was in the galley. Ultimately they would have to mention the pearls, as a valuable package be longing to Hooper that was to be salved from a wreck. It seemed likely the men might anticipate trouble with natives on the supposed guano island. There had been talk of it already and neither Hooper nor Manning had contradicted it. ”

“ I saw a bit of the real man in his office that morning. He wants guano, it seems. Better than gold-mining these days. He might be playing both ends to the middle. Grab it off if he can or arrange for an option from us if he can’t do any better. ”