I must have been asleep for an hour or two. I was having a dream about the engine. I was trying to start it, and couldn’t. The other fellows weren’t in the dream. I was alone.
After a lot of back-breaking work I managed, to get the engine started. As I straightened I could hear the singing put! put! put! of the exhaust. Bending to its task, the engine quickly picked up speed. I could feel the Sally Ann quiver as the propeller blades bit into the water. Another such dream, so real and so vivid, I never had had.
Suddenly I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Was I awake? I pinched myself. No, I wasn’t dreaming. My mind wasn’t sleeping. And what I had dreamt to a result had actually taken place—the Sally Ann was under way, was moving slowly down the canal, its motor singing in full speed.
I jumped up. The others were still asleep. So I knew it wasn’t one of my chums who had started the engine.
“Wake up,” I breathed in Scoop’s ear, trembling in my excitement.
“What the dickens?…” he gasped, sitting up. He blinked his eyes. “We’re moving!”
“Some one’s stealing our boat.”
He leaped to his feet. [[110]]
“Where’s Red and Peg? They may be playing a joke on us.”
I pointed to the two sleepers.