At the moment there seemed to be no reason why Frank Allen should doubt the faithfulness of his motor, for it was running smoothly, hitting regularly, and had been responding to-day to its master’s touch. Which very fact was stated by Lanky Wallace.
“That’s all right, Lanky—what you say. But you heard me compare a gas engine to a mule, didn’t you? That is using other words to say that when you think things are the smoothest is when they are getting ready to be the worst.”
The words had just left Frank’s lips and reached Lanky Wallace’s ears when there was a loud pop and the engine’s explosions ceased.
“Oh, ye prophet!” and Lanky started laughing.
“Here! Grab the wheel, hold her straight ahead, and let me tickle this thing into action,” and Frank let Wallace have his place.
His wrenches in hand, he took out a spark plug and immediately found this particular trouble. Cleaning the plug and respacing the two points across which the spark leaps, he replaced the plug and started the engine. Again it worked smoothly, and he threw it into gear with the propeller shaft.
“I wonder who Cunningham is, really,” he said as he wiped his hands on some waste and stood again alongside Lanky Wallace.
“Beats me. But I don’t like him, no matter who he is nor where he’s from. There’s something about him that isn’t square, Frank. His eyes are shifty and he seems too anxious to be the leader in everything in Columbia. I don’t see what Minnie sees in him——”
The mention of Minnie Cuthbert’s name along with Cunningham’s was not at all pleasing to Frank Allen, and a little frown stole across his face. There was silence between the two boys while the Rocket continued up the river at a medium pace, taking them on an errand for Frank’s father.
“Well,” Frank broke into the put-put of the exhaust, “I guess it’s just a strange face and new ways and new words and lots of great things he has done, and all of that. They say a woman’s intuition is unerring, but I believe that you and I have better intuition in this case than the girls have. I’m going to venture this: I don’t believe Cunningham is here for any good reason, and I believe that fast motor boat of his is for some other purpose than just to challenge us fellows to a race.”