Running the boat out to the end of the wharf, Mike gave her a push, jumping in as he did so, and a second later the Sprite was floating about twenty feet from the shore. Bob at once turned on the juice, as he expressed it, and to their delight the propeller began to beat the water.
"Hurrah!" shouted both Jack and Mike, "She's going."
"Yes, she's going," repeated Bob, heading her down the lake. "Now to see if she will make any kind of time."
Slowly he pushed the switch over notch by notch, and faster and faster the Sprite cut through the water, till Jack declared that they were going fully as fast as they ever went with the old engine. "Have you got on full power?" he asked eagerly.
"No," replied Bob, "only about half. But don't it seem funny not to hear her puff?"
"It sure does," assented Jack, "but push her over and let's see how fast she can go."
Faster and faster the boat cut through the water till it seemed to the boys that they were almost flying.
"Jiminy-jumped-up!" ejaculated Mike, speaking for the first time, "but ye'll get a hot box if ye don't slow her down."
"No danger of that," laughed Bob, "but we're going fifteen miles an hour if we're going an inch, and the best of it is she seems to be running in perfect order."
They sailed about the lake for about an hour and expressed themselves as being well satisfied with the results and confident that they would be able to keep the coveted blue ribbon. As Jack expressed it, "The Winner would have to go a good deal faster that afternoon than she ever had before to justify her name."