“Then I’m going to offer a suggestion; and if Jack says so, I’ll put it in the form of a motion,” George continued.
“Make it a motion without all this fuss and feathers,” observed Herb.
“I move, then, that we abandon our original intention of knocking along this north shore of Superior till we arrive at Duluth, where we could ship our boats home. It wouldn’t pay us for the trouble and the danger. It’s a barren country. If we had an accident there’s no place to have repairs done short of several hundred miles. In a word, fellows, this is no hunting ground for little motor boats. Besides,” with a sly glance toward Nick, “what if our grub gives out, as it’s likely to do at any time, once Buster gets to feeling himself again; why, we might starve to death, fellows, in the midst of plenty.”
“You’ve heard the motion, fellows—that we change our programme, and give up this Lake Superior trip. All in favor say aye!” Jack remarked.
A chorus of assents followed.
“Contrary, no!” went on the commodore; but only silence followed.
“Motion is carried unanimously,” Jack went on. “And now, let’s consider what is to take the place of this trip. We’ve still got some weeks ahead of us, the fishing’s fine, and we’re a long way from Milwaukee. Somebody suggest something.”
George and Jack had of course talked this thing over more than once recently. So no one was surprised when the former immediately jumped up, and began:
“For one, I’m of the opinion we couldn’t do better than return over part of the way we came. Between the Soo and Mackinac Island there’s fine cruising ground to be explored. We can take a different route part of the way back through the St. Mary’s River, and perhaps find new mud banks, with a few more strange animals on the Canada side. Besides Jack says the bass fishing is just great in some places they told him about at the Soo.”
“Hurrah! Me for the St. Mary’s then,” Nick shouted, to hide his confusion at mention of strange beasts, for of course he knew what that referred to.