r the sun had just reached the distant rugged
horizon in the west.

"Do you refer to me when you say that, Puss?" he asked, with that same
queer little smile on his face--a look that mystified the other, who
could not understand what it meant.

"Yes, both you and that loud-mouthed cousin of yours. Just because luck
favored you, and you won that blooming race by a head, you think I can't
manage an aeroplane as well as you. Huh! perhaps you don't know that I'm
going to take my machine with me when I go down to the cocoa plantation
we own along the Amazon, and use it exploring where a white man has
seldom been seen. You can just stay here and grow up with the country,
while I'm doing great stunts. But as long as I stay here I'm going to
stop this talk about trickery and low-down dodges. You're responsible
for most of it, Frank Bird. I warn you what's coming to you."
"Perhaps," said Frank, pleasantly, "you would be kind enough to tell me
also when this awful punishment is going to fall on my poor devoted
neck?"

"Any time, hang you! Right now, if you say another word!" roared Puss,
doubling up his fists, and making ready for one of his well known and
feared bull rushes, that had brought him a speedy victory many a time.

"So? That's comforting; and with all these good fellows around to see
how you wipe up the deck with me. Suppose you begin the swabbing act,
Puss!" and Frank pretended to throw himself in a position of defense.

The other gave utterance to a hoarse cry of rage, and lowering his head
after the manner of a bull, jumped forward. But the agile Frank simply
stepped aside; and unable to check himself in time, Puss Carberry shot
over the side of the power boat, disappearing in the clear waters of
Sunrise Lake with a great splash.

"Oh!" shouted his crony, Sandy Hollingshead, standing there as if
petrified; "and Puss can't swim a single stroke, either!"

CHAPTER II.

FRANK'S WAY.

"My goodness, what a splash!"

"Served him right, that's what!"

"He's gone under, fellows! Dove just like a big frog!"

"Stop the boat! He'll drown!"

Half a dozen were shouting in unison, as the boys crowded to the side
over which the bully had pitched when Frank avoided his forward rush.

But Frank heard only that startled exclamation from Sandy Hollingshead:

"Puss can't swim a single stroke, either!"

With Frank Bird to think was to act. The two things were almost
synonymous in his mind. Forgotten was the f