"Of course, ye ixpect that George will be waitin' for us all the while at Memphis?" remarked Jimmie a little later, as he swept the watery horizon to the south, and the shore line closer by with the fine glasses.
"Well, I suppose so," replied Jack. "That is, if he's managed to pull through without another blowout or breakdown."
"Sure, ye have another guess coming Jack, me bye, and that's no lie," remarked Jimmie, a smile beginning to creep over his wide face.
"Then you've seen something," declared the other. "Here, take hold of this wheel and give me the glasses."
He swept the shore line with a careful scrutiny.
"I see him," he remarked presently. "And it's just as you said, Jimmie; George is in a peck of trouble again with that cranky high-power engine. They've tied up to the shore and have got the red flag flying that was to be our signal of distress. Poor Nick; I can just picture him right now, grunting over all the misfortunes that haunt them, while the rest of us have had so little trouble. I'm afraid he'll waste away to mere skin and bones yet."
The Tramp was soon headed for the spot where they could see their comrades waving their arms wildly as if afraid the second boat in the race might pass them by.
"Same old story?" asked Jack, as he brought alongside and gripped the hands of the forlorn shipwrecked travelers.
"Rotten luck!" groaned Nick, shaking his head dolefully. "I'm pining away, fellows, inch by inch. Why, my clothes are ready to drop off me, I'm getting so like a scarecrow. Mebbe you don't believe me, but it's a fact. And I'm that nervous I keep quivering all the time like a—a——"
"A bowl full of jelly;" burst out Jimmie. "Sure, I do belave ye, Buster. And as Jack and me sail along so cheerful loike, me thoughts often fly till ye, and I fale that only for that stubborn will ye'd have gone and given up long ago."