The old man spoke sharply. Lem regarded him blankly.
"None o' my business! Then how in Sam Hill am I a-goin' ter run the boat?"
"You are not going to run it."
"I ain't, eh?"
Lem was all "taken back," as he would have put it. He had been figuring on a good price for the hire of the boat and a further fee for himself as skipper. Certainly neither of the pair before him looked capable of handling a power boat.
"No; if we take your boat we shall run it ourselves."
"You will?"
The astonished Lem gazed at the stooped figure before him. He was almost bereft of words.
"Yes, I will; does that satisfy you?"
"Wa'al, I'll be plumb dummed," choked out the fisherman; "I should think you'd know more about crutches an' arm-chairs than about running gasoline boats."