Must have been near ten o'clock when Rupert announces cheerful: "By George! She's falling behind. Those searchlights are getting dimmer."
"I believe you're right," says Old Hickory.
Half an hour more and there was no doubt about it.
"Humph!" says Auntie. "I was sure we could do it."
And Mr. Ellins is so tickled that he orders up a couple of bottles of his best fizz, so all hands can drink to the U. S. Navy.
"Long may it wave," says J. Dudley Simms, "and may it always stick to its new motto—Safety First."
He got quite a hand on that, and then everybody turned in happy. As I went to sleep the Agnes was still joggin' along at her best gait, and it was comfortin' to know that our wrathy naval friends had been left hopelessly behind.
I expect I must have been poundin' my ear real industrious for five or six hours when I hears this distant boom, and comes up in my berth as sudden as if someone had pulled the string. Sunshine was streamin' in through the porthole, and I was just wonderin' if I'd slept right through the breakfast gong when boom! it came again. There's a rush of feet on deck, some panicky remarks from the man up in the bow, a quick clangin' of the engine-room bells, and then I feels the propellers reversed.
"Good night!" says I. "Pinched on the high seas!"
I didn't waste much time except to throw on a few clothes; but, at that, I finds Auntie scrabblin' out ahead of me and Captain Killam already on deck. She's a picturesque old girl, Auntie, in a lavender and white kimono and a boudoir cap to match; and Rupert, in blue trousers and a pajama top, hardly looks like a triple-plated hero.