“He knows seaplanes, at least,” observed Tom. “I must have seen him—or his picture, perhaps.”
“He was a complete stranger to me,” declared Ned.
“His face is familiar to me. And I am a bit scary of him,” confessed Tom. “He looked the new boat over as though he understood everything about her. Humph! There are some unpatented parts that I would not care to have stolen.”
“The man could scarcely steal them in his eye,” remarked Mr. Swift.
“I am not so sure of that. But it may be that because of trouble we have had in the past, I am suspicious with little cause.”
“You have caught that from Koku,” laughed Ned Newton.
“Maybe the boy is more than half right,” rejoined Tom, referring to the giant. “Carney, in the shops, has said he ‘had a feeling in his bones’ that there was a ‘jinx’ on the boat. Humph! I have to say I don’t believe in such things—”
“Whether you do believe in evil spirits or not?” interposed Ned.
“Well, that may be so. After all, admitting the existence of bad luck is to encourage it, they say. But that has nothing much to do with the dapper little man with the spike mustache and goatee and the flower in his buttonhole. He was spick and span——”
“Like most Frenchmen? That is one reason why I almost always like the French,” declared Ned.