“Oh; but you’re very much mistaken there,” the one indicated hastened to say. “I admired him and hope some time to see more of him. I think we shall before we leave the St. Lawrence cruising grounds.”
George shook his head. He seemed to guess that there might be a hidden meaning back of these words; but if so, it was beyond his capacity to fathom it.
“But look here, if he’s coming along, why don’t we hear his old boat any more?” Josh asked.
“That’s so,” declared George. “I wonder, now, if the engine could have broken down.”
At that everybody smiled, for in their Mississippi cruise it had been George who was frequently in trouble through the inability of his motor to stand the strain of great pressure. And consequently the subject was usually one that was frequently on his mind.
“Oh! the chances are that he was just going past, and has gotten beyond hearing. You know sometimes a flaw in the wind will carry a sound for a mile or two,” Jack remarked.
“That’s so, on the water,” George observed.
A little later, while the others were engaged in some wordy dispute, Jack quietly slipped into the little tender attached to the Tramp and paddled softly off out of the cove.
“What d’ye suppose he’s got on his mind?” asked George, looking after the other.
“Give me something easy,” replied Nick. “Jack always is a puzzle for me. He has such bright thoughts I don’t just seem able to grapple with ’em. But depend on it, he’s thinking of something right now.”