“I’ve salvaged a motor boat!” was Mose’s reply.
“What’s the trouble with her?” was the next question.
“She’s got my net wound around her propeller!” answered Mose.
“Sho’,” returned the other. “That new net of yours that cost a hundred not a week ago?”
“Yessir, that same new net!” returned the riverman.
Alex saw that the men were preparing to make trouble for him. He knew that they could not collect a cent of salvage for towing his boat out of the stream. He was positive that the net did not belong to them. Houseboat people of their class consider themselves fortunate in the possession of ordinary fishing lines and spears.
However, he only smiled as they talked of their hundred-dollar net, and dropped over into the shallow water of the creek to inspect the damage done to the propeller and rudder.
So far as he could see, there was nothing broken. The net which was wound about everything at the stern of the boat seemed to him to make a bundle as large as a whiskey barrel. He took out his knife preparatory to cutting it away.
“Look here, you boy you!” shouted Mose. “Don’t you go to cuttin’ up that net. You just take your consarned old propeller and rudder off the stern so that we can unwind it.”
Alex knew that this would be impossible. His idea was to cut the net away, spring to the motors, and pass out of the reach of the houseboat men before they suspected what he was up to.