THE LURE OF THE OUTFITTER 13 



A young working man in overalls and flannel 

 shirt came in later in the day and applied to go 

 on the voyage. He qualified as a green hand. 

 But no spirit of adventure had brought him to 

 Levy's. A whaling voyage appealed to his 

 canny mind as a business proposition. 



" What can we make?" he asked the runner. 



" If your ship is lucky," replied the runner, 

 " you ought to clean up a pile of money. You'll 

 ship on the 190th lay. Know what a lay is? It's 

 your per cent, of the profits of the voyage. Say 

 your ship catches four whales. She ought to 

 catch a dozen if she has good luck. But say she 

 catches four. Her cargo in oil and bone will be 

 worth about $50,000. .Your share will amount 

 to something like $200, and you'll get it in a 

 lump sum when you get back." 



This was bunk talk " — a " springe to catch 

 woodcock" — but we did not know it. That 

 fluent and plausible man took pencil and paper 

 and showed us just how it would all work out. 

 It was reserved for us poor greenhorns to learn 

 later on that sailors of whaling ships usually are 

 paid off at the end of a voyage with " one big 



