"Neatly done, Noddy," applauded Jack. "We'll forgive you even that awful pun for that skillful bit of boat-handling."
The freckled lad grinned in appreciation of the compliment paid him by the Wireless Boy.
"Much obliged," he said. "Of course I haven't got sailing down as fine as you yet. How far do you reckon we are from home?"
"From the Pine Island hotel, you mean?" rejoined Billy Raynor. "Oh, not more than ten miles."
"Just about that," chimed in Jack. "If this wind holds we'll be home in time for supper."
"Supper!" exclaimed Bill; "I could eat an octogenarian doughnut, I'm so hungry."
A groan came from Noddy. Although the Bowery lad had polished up on his grammar and vocabulary considerably since Jack Ready first encountered him as second cook on the seal-poaching schooner Polly Ann, Captain "Terror" Carson commanding, still, a word like "Octogenarian" stumped him, as the saying is.
"What's an octo-octo—what-you-may-call-'um doughnut, anyhow?" he demanded, for Noddy always liked to acquire a new word, and not infrequently astonished his friends by coming out with a "whopper" culled out of the dictionary. "Is it a doughnut with legs on it?"
Jack and Billy broke into a roar of laughter.
"A doughnut with legs on?" sputtered Billy. "Whatever put that idea into your head, Noddy?"