"Hello, to you!" called back George. "It's been a long time since I have seen you. I shan't forget you for I have three or four good reasons."
"I hope you won't," laughed the mechanic, "but I should like to know what your reasons are."
"One reason," said George seriously, "was that you never shook hands with me in the morning when you came to work."
"I didn't know you wanted me to," said the man. "I'll make up for lost time now." As he spoke he grasped the hand which extended from George's right sleeve and as George at that same moment turned quickly away, the astonished handshaker stood holding in his grasp an arm which had apparently come from the sleeve of the boy.
"That's right," said George soberly, pretending to be much grieved. "That's right. First you don't shake hands and then you shake hands so hard that you take my arm right off."
The sight had quickly drawn many of the people who were loitering about the dock and for a moment they were startled to see what had been apparently a serious accident.
"It's nothing," said George, turning to the assembly. "This man shook hands with me and the first thing I know he had shaken my arm off. He's welcome to it, however, and I hope it will do him some good."
The crowd was laughing noisily by this time and when George turned back to resume his place on board the motor-boat, the mechanic was the center of an observing throng which was inspecting the arm that he still was holding.
Upon the return of the boys to the island, they discovered that Fred's grandfather was seated upon the piazza conversing with a man whose form impressed the Go Ahead boys as being familiar.
When they drew near the house John exclaimed in a low voice, "That's our friend that we saw on the canal-boat."