fully. "Nothing like a life in the
open to tone a chap up, give him a sharp appetite, and make his food
agree with him. Why, Josh, the fact is you look a hundred per cent
better right now, don't he boys?"'

"Sure he do that," said Jimmie, readily. "Look at the color in his
cheeks. And, by the powers, his eye shines like it niver did before.
Josh, ye're going to be a well man in a few days more, and kin ate a
house widout falin' it, so you kin."

The machinist, under the spur of double pay from the impatient George,
made it a one day job. True, he had to stay after dark to finish; but
the boys gave him his supper; and before bedtime came he pronounced the
engine of the speed boat as in "apple-pie" shape.

So after all they had not lost much time. Indeed, as it would have
been out of the question to have started at the hour the _Comfort_
arrived, Jack declared that they had no reason for complaint.

Promptly at eight on the following morning they set out. It was
cloudy, and looked as though it might rain before the day was done.

George, anxious to test his rejuvenated engine, shot away at full
speed, and as usual they lost him in the distance. Still, Jack had a
suspicion that the skipper of the _Wireless_ would not be apt to try
for a distance record on this day, as he had done in the past.

They had talked with many negroes and whites while stopping at Memphis.
The machinist had taken a keen interest in their race; and tried to
give them all the information in his power about the lower Mississippi,
between Memphis and Vicksburg. As he was something of a duck hunter he
knew considerable about the flooded sloughs skirting the wide river.

He had also hinted about a disturbed condition among the planters.
They were having an unusually great amount of trouble with vicious
characters, mostly blacks; and several lynching bees had taken place
within the preceding fortnight.

George had listened to these stories, and made no remark; but somehow
Jack had a little suspicion that from now on the skipper of the speed
boat would try to make it convenient to halt sooner, so as to allow the
_Tramp_ a chance to overtake them. Company under such conditions was a
big part of the enjoyment; and George was, to tell the truth, a trifle
timid when it came to trouble from human sources, though reckless in
other regards.

Several times during the day Jack took occasion to land on various
pleas; so as to have a few words wit