“I’ll go for’ard,” spoke the sailor. “I can’t do anything here, and I’ll be on the lookout.”
The boys tried everything they could bring to mind. They had been in similar trouble before, though not under such serious circumstances.
“I think after all I’ll have to take the carburettor out,” Jerry remarked with something like a sigh, for it was a hard and difficult task.
“I say!” called Sam. “Do you suppose any of the pipes is stopped up?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we had some trouble once, when I was aboard the Double Dog Fish, and it was on account of stopped-up pipes.”
“Was that a motor boat?” asked Bob.
“Say, that was before we ever thought of motor boats. It was away back in 1849. It was this way. There was a barrel of molasses aboard, and we used to be allowed to help ourselves. It come in mighty good for sweetening your tea. Well, one day we opened the spigot and none come out. First we thought the cook had shut down on us. Then we thought maybe the molasses had given out. But it wasn’t either one.”
“What was it?” asked Jerry, glad of something to take his mind off the trouble of the engine.