But"-- and he glared at her significantly--"no more foolishness." She laughed.

"What are you 'on' this morning, Condy ?" Condy told her as they started to walk toward Kearney Street.
"But why DON'T you go to the dock and see the vessel, if you can make a better article that way ?" "Oh, what's the good! The Centennial people have turned down my stories." She commiserated him for this; then suddenly exclaimed: "No, you must go down to the dock! You ought to, Condy.

Oh, I tell you, let me go down with you!" In an instant Condy leaped to the notion.

"Splendid! splendid! no reason why you shouldn't!" he exclaimed.

And within fifteen minutes the two were treading the wharves and quays of the city's water-front.
Ships innumerable nuzzled at the endless line of docks, mast overspiring mast, and bowsprit overlapping bowsprit, till the eye was bewildered, as if by the confusion of branches in a leafless forest.
In the distance the mass of rigging resolved itself into a solid gray blur against the sky.