For the two lads, in spite of the clumsiness and stiffness of the mechanism, were sending the boat steadily right out of the dam and into the river, where they ran it slowly for some four hundred yards before they thought it time to turn, and all the while with a troop of lads and men cheering with all their might.
“Sit steady; don’t sway,” said Vane, “she’s rather top-heavy.”
“I just will,” responded Macey. “She’d be over in a moment. But, I say, isn’t it hard work?”
“The machinery’s too stiff,” said Vane.
“My arms are,” said Macey, “and I don’t seem to have any legs.”
“Never mind.”
“But I do.”
“Stop now,” said Vane, and the boat glided on a little way and then the stream checked her entirely, right in the middle.
“That’s the best yet,” said Macey, with a sigh of relief.
But there was no rest for him.