"
"Well, maybe you'll get more than you think," said Dan, whose words
always carried weight because he was mate of a deep-sea tug. "Captain
Barney Hodge's _Three Sisters_ was laid up yesterday; a three-foot
piece of piling bedded in an ice-cake got caught in her screw,
and--zip! The other fellows are feeling so good about it that I think
they'll be apt to be generous."
"We'll drink to Barney's bad health," said Darragh, raising his glass.
"I saw him half an hour gone. He looked like a dead man. Cap'n Jim
Skelly o' the _John Quinn_ piloted _Gypsum Prince_ inter her dock last
night. No one ever handled her afore but Cap'n Barney. An' the
_Kentigern_ from Liverpool is due to-night. Skelly's layin' fur her
too; an' he'll git her. That'll take two vessels from Barney's private
monopoly."
Darragh was right. The towboatmen had Captain Barney where they wanted
him, and they meant to gaff him hard. He had always been too sharp for
the rest, too good at a bargain, too mean; and what was more, he was in
every way the best towboatman that ever lived. No one liked him; but
the steamship-captains engaged his services for towing and piloting,
nevertheless, for the reason that they considered him a disagreeable
necessity, believing that no other tugboatman could serve them so well.
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