Frank Allen and his motor boat; or, Racing to save a life

by Graham B. Forbes

In a flash of time the two boats were almost touching noses. Then came the necessary alertness and deftness of movement. With a hard tug at his wheel Frank threw the Rocket to one side.

Crunch! The sides of the two boats rubbed each other all the way from stem to stern. As quickly as this happened Frank threw the wheel hard in the opposite direction, with the effect that it threw the Speedaway around, and did so with such a jerk that a large box fell overboard on the other side.

“Hey, you blame fool! What do you mean trying to run me down? What kind of dirty tricks are you up to?” yelled Fred Cunningham as they passed.

Frank, hearing the splash and not knowing that it was not a man overboard, for he had seen two other men beside Cunningham in the boat, immediately cut off speed and continued the long turning movement started when he so quickly gave the push to the stern of the Speedaway.

Her nose now downstream, Frank and Lanky saw that the Speedaway had also made a wide turn and was coming back toward a box which was floating in the river. The speed of the Rocket lessened as it neared the other motor boat.

The two men in the Speedaway were busily engaged in reaching for the floating box, which appeared to be an empty one, and were thus averting their faces. His quick eyes taking in the scene, however, Frank got enough of a glimpse of the men to be able to recognize them again if he should ever see them.

“Say, what kind of business is this? Do you know that you could have swamped this boat and put us all into the river?” called Cunningham.

“That’s about what you had coming to you,” called Frank. Since Cunningham was playing this kind of trick and since there was nothing to be gained by having any argument about the guilt of one or the other, Frank merely showed his contempt for the other.

By this time the two other men had rescued the box and had placed it on the deck forward.

“Do you think that raft of yours has any speed in it?” asked Cunningham sneeringly. “If you think so, I’ll give you a race any time you want it.”