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 and yet overawed at the thought, "ain't she a pretty big steamer for us kids to talk about capturin'?"

The pirate Captain looked down at the Lone Star contemptuously.

"We 've got to have her, men!" he said, relentlessly.

They saw the wheelsman push off from her in a punt, and scull about picking up loose logs, where his boom had disjointed.

This left only old Brown, the engineer, on board. Having rounded up his logs, the wheelsman sculled back to the tug, where the engineer stooped down over the gunwale and handed him a tin pail. Then he sculled briskly ashore, and disappeared through the doorway of Allen's Saloon.

Such a chance was too much for the Napoleonic soul of Captain Lonely O'Malley. He climbed down from his cabin, and with a determined hitch at his trousers stalked forward.

"Every man who 's for capturin' the Lone Star, this side!" he said, coldly, yet challengingly.

There was a moment of hesitation and doubt,