CHAPTER I
ON THE WAY TO THE GAME
“Give it again, fellows! For the honor of old Columbia—now, once more, with a will!” shouted the cheer captain, Herman Hooker.
“Ho! ho! ho! hi! hi! hi! veni, vidi, vici! Columbia!”
“Cast off there, somebody.”
“Start your engine, Frank, old boy!”
“Hurrah! we’re afloat on the raging Harrapin at last!”
“Got any life preservers aboard, fellows?”
Amid all this uproar and confusion Frank Allen, cool and collected, gave a whirl to the crank to turn his engine over; and immediately a succession of rattling reports testified to the fact that as master of ceremonies he had given the expedition a good send-off.
Then he handed over the engine to the charge of Abner Gould, the man employed regularly by Commodore Adams, to whom the launch belonged.