not reached his cabin by some other route, unseen
by them, when the motor of the _Dixie_ gave a combined cough, groan
and sneeze, and stopped short.

"There she goes!" exclaimed Ed.

"You mean there she _doesn't_ go!" corrected Walter.

"Get the talcum powder," suggested Jack.

"I'm sure Dray didn't use the tooth brush on her before we came out,"
spoke Jack, accusingly.

The boys had a way of doing the most absurd things, from a mechanical
standpoint, whenever their motors refused to mote. They would dust
talcum powder on the cylinder tops, or tie a piece of baby-blue ribbon
on the pet-cock when they had exhausted every other means of making a
rebellious motor operate.

And the odd part of it was that, often, when they had done these
seemingly silly things, the boat would start. So they were rather
superstitious about it, and they did carry a tin of talcum powder with
them, much to the amusement of the girls.

In turn the usual sources of trouble were looked for and eliminated
one after the other.

No wires seemed to have broken, the current was good, the vibrator
buzzed when the contact was made and there was plenty of gasoline in
the tank.

"Put in a new spark plug," suggested Jack.

"New ones went in to-day," answered Dray. "They can't have sooted
already. It isn't there."

"Give her a little more air," proposed Walter. "I think she's getting
too rich a gasoline mixture."

"I'm not going to touch the carbureter!" declared the young owner of
the _Dixie_. "It was trouble enough to get her fixed before. Hand me
that talcum." Gravely he dusted some on the pump rod.

Then another attempt was made to start the motor, but it only sighed
dismally, and refused to do its duty.

"I say!" cried Jack, looking up from where he had been examining the
carbureter with an electrical pocket flash, "we're drifting out to
sea!"

"So we are!" agreed Ed. "Say, can't you get her going?"

"Can't seem to," replied Drayton. "I'll sell this boat and get another
as soon as I can. She's a nuisance!"

"Well, we sure are broken down," sighed Jack, "and how we are going to
get back to the cabin is more than I can figure out."

"Let's whistle for help," suggested Walter.

"Look!" exclaimed Jack, pointing in the direction of shore. "There's a
light in Denny's cabin!"

They all looked, and saw a flickering gleam of fire near the shack
that had been deserted all day.

"Something's doing!" cried Ed. "And we're stuck out here