“But we’ll know by the time we get to New Orleans, won’t we?” demanded Nick, with set jaws, and a flash to his blue eyes; “because, you see, I’m interested more’n the rest of you.”
“Say ye so?” burst out Jimmy, wickedly, and chuckling under his breath.
“Because it would give me plenty of time to burst bubbles that are floating around here, and establish a new record,” Nick went on, pugnaciously.
“Then, by the powers,” Jimmy declared, “I do be hopin’ that we spind the whole bally winter down here. It amuses me to see ye worrk, Nick. An’, by the same token, it’s doin’ ye a hape of good in the bargain, so it is.”
They had reached Cedar Keys, and everything was going well. George still found more or less reason to congratulate himself on his wisdom in making that change in his motive power. Now and then Jack saw him pondering, and understood that there was a fly in the ointment somewhere; but George had said nothing, and they could only hazard a guess as to whether it might be a diminution of speed, or the old haunting fear of a breakdown still gripping his heart.
“Where do we strike next for mail?” asked Herb, the night after leaving the city on the key, when, after passing the mouth of the famous Suwannee River, they had pulled up back of a friendly key.
“Pensacola is our next port; and I hope we find more letters waiting for us than there were here,” George replied.
“Now, that’s quare,” remarked Jimmy, with a twinkle in his eye; “when ivery one of us got a letter from the folks back home. But I do be fearin’ the little girlie with the rosy cheeks, and the dimple in her chin forgot to write that toime.”
“Well, what’s that to anybody but me?” said George, facing them all boldly.
The conversation immediately switched to another subject, for George was rather touchy about having his private affairs talked about by his chums. Had it been Nick, now, or even Jimmy, they would have answered back in the same humor, and the fun waxed fast and furious.