“But why did Josh jump? Was he practicing stunts?” Nick went on innocently.
“Well,” replied the commodore, “I imagine George made him squat up in the extreme bow, to sing out if he saw a shallow place ahead. And evidently Josh was looking all around, for he failed to discover a mudbank that was just hidden under the surface of the water.”
“But George found it,” asserted Herb.
“Trust George for findin’ annything at all, at all,” grinned Jimmie.
“Hope he didn’t go to busting his old engine again. My! what a terrible time we did have with that cranky thing on the Mississippi,” observed Nick; who had been on board the speed boat during that memorable cruise down to New Orleans, and hence passed through an experience he would never, never forget.
“I hope not,” echoed Jack. “Perhaps the worst is yet to come. Perhaps he ran on that old mudbank so hard, going at top speed as he was, that he won’t find it an easy job to work off again.”
“That might delay us, be the powers, so we wouldn’t be able to pull into the ould Soo short of tomorry, bad cess till hasty George!” remarked Jimmie.
“Well,” remarked Nick, with a contented sigh, “at the worst we’ve got Jocko, you remember, boys. Baked or stewed he’d make a meal for the crowd.”
Meanwhile they were rapidly drawing closer to the stuck Wireless. Apparently the skipper of the stranded craft had succeeded in dragging his crew out of the mire, for there was a dripping figure on the forward deck, scraping the mud away, and evidently more or less bubbling over with various remarks.
Jack cautioned Herb to slow down as they drew near.