Nearly all that day the Winkyminky paddled bravely on her way, and then, all of a sudden, she stopped. A large cog-wheel, which was a part of her machinery, had broken. The engineer had known this wheel was going to break; but he hoped it would last till they got to Jacksonville.
Everybody was greatly disturbed at this accident, especially when the captain told them it could not have occurred in a worse place.
The Winkyminky drew but little water, and thus was sometimes enabled to make short cuts that a larger boat would not attempt, and, being a very slow craft, she saved distance whenever she could.
To avoid a long curve, she had gone inside of a wooded island, and here the accident had taken place. No large steamboat could come to her assistance here; but the captain said that the Rosa, the only small boat that would leave Jacksonville that week, would probably be along in a day or two, and would, most likely, pass inside the island. Then, he said, he would see what he could do to prevail upon her to turn back and tow his boat to the city.
This was poor comfort to the passengers, and they grumbled greatly; but nothing came of the grumbling, and they went to bed that night with the steamboat anchored near a small island, which shut it out from view of the body of the river, while the main shore, a hundred or more yards away, was wild and uninhabited.
In the morning it was found that they were out of fresh water, but the captain said that about half a mile down-stream, on the main shore, there was a spring, and having put a barrel on board a small boat, he sent two of his hands to fill it with water.
Of course, Chap instantly demanded permission to go in the boat, and much to everybody’s surprise, the countess also said that she would like to go. It would be a relief from the monotony of sitting in the anchored steamboat.
The promise of a small compensation made the two men very willing to row an extra load, and the countess and Chap, in company with the water-barrel, were pulled to the mainland. Here the two men set to work to fill the barrel, carrying the water in pails from the spring to the boat, and taking a good deal of time to do it, while Chap and the countess walked along the shore to survey the scene, the lady keeping a sharp lookout for any alligators that might be basking beneath the trees.
The countess was very much disturbed at the interruption to her journey.
“It is too bad,” she said, “that we are obliged to stay in this horrid place, and on that wretched little boat. There is no knowing how long we will have to wait here. The next thing will be that we will have to send ashore for something to eat as well as water to drink, and what they’ll find I’m sure I don’t know.”