“_Your_ character ain’t,” said Harman. “Speak for yourself when you’re talkin’ of characters, and leave us out. I’m with Blood. I’ve had enough of this shady business, and I ain’t goin’ to run crooked no more. Frisco and salvage moneys--my game, b’sides, you needn’t come into Frisco harbour. Lend us a couple of your hands to take her in, and we’ll do the business and share equal with you in the takin’s. I ain’t a man to go back on a pal for a few dirty dollars, and my word’s as good as my bond all along the water side with pals. I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ about owners or companies; I say with pals, and you’ll find your share banked for you in the Bank of California, safe as if you’d put it there yourself.”
Ginnell for a moment seemed about to dissent violently from this proposition; then, of a sudden, he fell calm.
“Well,” said he, “maybe I’m wrong and maybe you’re right, but I ain’t goin’ to hang behind. If you’ve fixed on taking her into Frisco, I’ll follow you in and help in the swearin’. You two chaps can navigate her with a couple of the coolies I’ll lend you, and, mind you, it’s equal shares I’m askin’.”
“Right,” said Harman. “What do you say, Blood?”
“I’m agreeable,” said Blood; “though it’s more than he deserves, considering all things.”
“Well, I’m not goin’ to put up no arguments,” said Ginnell. “I states me terms, and, now that’s fixed, I proposes we takes stock of the cargo. Rig a tackle and get one of them cases on deck and let’s see if the manifest holds when the wrappin’s is off.”
The others agreed. With the help of a couple of the Chinamen from the boat alongside, they rigged a tackle and got out a case. Harman, poking about, produced a chisel and mallet from the hole where the schooner’s carpenter had kept his tools, a strip of boarding was removed from the top of the case, and next moment a champagne bottle, in its straw jacket, was in the hands of Ginnell.
He removed the jacket and the pink tissue paper from the bottle, whose gold capsule glittered delightfully in the sunlight.
Then he knocked the bottle’s head off, and the amber wine creamed out over his hands and onto the deck.
Harman ran to the galley and fetched a pannikin, and they sampled the stuff, and then Blood, taking the half-empty bottle, threw it overboard.