“Hallo,” shouted Clay from the motor. “Good morning to you.”
“Same to you,” called down the Kid. “Say, that little tub of yours makes better time than I thought she would. I thought we passed you during the night. By the way. I’ve got something for you fellows. I’ll lower it down to you on a string.”
“Come down yourself,” Clay invited. “Just fasten a rope to the rail and shin down. I want to ask you a lot of questions and I can’t hear you well above the din of the motor, and the thrashing of the paddle wheels.”
The Kid hesitated. “I’m afraid you can’t get me back alongside again,” he shouted, “and I’ve got to be there with the mail on time.”
“We’ll get you aboard all right,” Clay promised. “That is, if you are not afraid. It’s a little risky for a tenderfoot.”
No live young man could stand such a taunt to his courage before a pretty girl, and the Kid surrendered. “All right,” he called down. “I’ll see the captain and see if he’ll promise to slow up a bit if we get too far behind.” He looked around at the crowd on deck and finally beckoned to an old sour-dough to take his chair. The old-timer obeyed, although he nevertheless seemed in his nervousness, to experience great trouble in disposing of his hands and feet.
Clay smiled at the Kid’s maneuvers. Evidently he was taking no chances.
Alex, up forward, secure in the fact that he could not be reached, was taking an impish delight in bantering the officer who had cursed so fluently. “Say, you snapping turtle of a log rider,” he hailed. “What do you mean by using such language when a real sure enough boat comes alongside your old mud scow? Afraid we were going to smash your old hulk to pieces? Where did you learn that sort of language, anyway? I’ll bet you used to raise mules down in Missouri.”
“I did handle mules for a while,” said the other with evident pride of his accomplishment. “That helped some. Then I mushed dog teams up here on the Yukon trail for four years and that sure taught me a lot. The rest is mostly Spanish I picked up here and there.”
“Why, you can’t swear at all,” scoffed Alex.