“I guess I will; I hadn’t realized that it was so cold.”
Bob had just reached the lowest step, when he turned and thrust his head out again with a shout to Nelson. But Nelson had already called Dan to take the wheel, and was hurrying down. The engine had stopped!
CHAPTER VII—IN WHICH NELSON DISCOVERS A STOWAWAY
For a moment the silence was startling. For an hour and a half the hum and whir of the busy engine had filled the boat until it had long since grown unnoticeable. And now to have it suddenly cease without warning seemed a veritable catastrophe. The silence which ensued while Nelson went anxiously over the motor seemed unnatural and fraught with disaster. On the stove, Tom’s viands stood forgotten while the chef watched with worried countenance the captain’s efforts to locate the trouble. Bob stood silently by and Dan peered down from the hatch, for there was no use in holding the wheel. The Vagabond drifted silently, rolling a little from side to side as the swells took her.
Finally Nelson stood up and scowled impatiently.
“I can’t see where the trouble is. The spark’s all right, she doesn’t seem hot, and the gasoline cock is wide open. The only thing——”
He seized a wrench and began to unfasten the vaporizer.
“This thing may possibly be stopped up,” he muttered.
He cleaned it out, turned the gasoline on again, and whistled.
“What is it?” asked Bob.