had been biding their time
outside.

"Joy!" I cried. "We're saved."

"Not yet," said Alb, as we dashed on, full speed ahead, going as
we had never gone yet. "We may be too late. Quick, run for'rad,
haul down the stars and stripes, and hoist the Club flag instead.
That'll carry more power even than the whole Navy of the United
States, and I mean to use it for all it's worth, right or no
right."

I darted to the bow and changed the flags, fumbling in my haste; then,
when the talisman was floating bravely, I hurried back to Alb, who was
imperiously clanging our bell with one hand, and steering with the
other.

I stood ready with the long boat-hook, not daring to look back and see
what speed "Wilhelmina" might be making. Toon was alert on "Waterspin,"
with a coiled rope in his hand. All the boats were in the lock now, and
the sound of our bell, and the colors of the Club flag alone kept the
lock-keeper from closing the great gate-jaws. Time was up: we must make
a spurt for it if we were not to exhaust his patience. We could see him
beckoning eagerly, and with a rush we were at the gates, in the tail of
the long procession. It was only as I knew they were slowly, inexorably
closing behind us that I could bring myself to look back. There was
"Wilhelmina" just coming into sight round the point, Alec MacNairne
gesticulating wildly, a figurehead "come alive," and furious.

XXXV

"Great Scott, but that was a narrow shave!" I sighed in ecstasy. "He's
out of it now."

"He may be out of the lock, but we're not out of the wood," said Alb.

He had slowed down, reversed the engine, and quietly passed into a
water-lane between some huge barges, looking not a whit disconcerted by
the curious gaze of the barge-folk who wondered at his bare feet and
soaked overalls.

"Why, what can he do?" I asked. "He'll have to wait an hour before the
lock opens again."

"You'll see presently what he can do," said Alb. "At least, you will if
he has any sense. It will be time for us to crow by-and-by--if ever."

I burned to ask what he meant by these ominous prognostications; but he
began to jabber in Dutch to our staring water-neighbors. Any stranger
would have thought him in the pleasantest mood in the world. He had a
friendly nod for the brown-faced skipper of a smoking tug, a few words
for another, and smiles for every one.

"I'm telling them that I've a wager on, and begging their kind help to
win it," he explained to me, as