to me." "You forget," I objected, "the captain himself declares the rice is damaged." "That's a point, I know," admitted Jim.

"But the rice is the sluggish article, anyway; it's little more account than ballast; it's the tea and silks that I look to: all we have to find is the proportion, and one look at the manifest will settle that.

I've rung up Lloyd's on purpose; the captain is to meet me there in an hour, and then I'll be as posted on that brig as if I built her.

Besides, you've no idea what pickings there are about a wreck--copper, lead, rigging, anchors, chains, even the crockery, Loudon!" "You seem to me to forget one trifle," said I."Before you pick that wreck, you've got to buy her, and how much will she cost ?" "One hundred dollars," replied Jim, with the promptitude of an automaton.
"How on earth do you guess that ?" I cried.
"I don't guess; I know it," answered the Commercial Force.

"My dear boy, I may be a galoot about literature, but you'll always be an outsider in business.