CHAPTER V

STARTING

As soon as the sun was up the boys were at work The first job was to remove the old motors to make place for the new. This was a dirty, greasy job but not hard. The nuts holding the motors to the solidly-built bed were unscrewed and the motors were carried out and stored in a corner of the big warehouse where the aged docktender had offered to keep an eye on them until the boys got back from their trip.

But the placing of the new motor was more of an undertaking. Strong as they were, the boys could not lift it aboard.

"We will have to have help and plenty of it," Clay declared, after they had twice made the attempt and failed. "Of course we could get a plank and block and tackle and get it aboard, but if the rope or board slipped just a little bit it would go through the bottom of the _Rambler_ as though the boards were made of paper. Then I can see now that the engine bed has got to be fixed. It's too narrow for this new motor. Now I've got a few more things to buy, so I'll run up town and get them. I'll stop on my way up and send down a couple of good carpenters with plenty of hard wood to fix up that engine bed right. Then when I come down, I'll bring four or five good husky men along with me and we'll have that motor in its place in no time."

He was not gone long before the two carpenters came down bearing their tools and several blocks of oak. The engine hold was a close place to work in, but they made good progress and soon had fitted in a new bed smooth and level to fit the new engine. They had just finished their job when Clay appeared, followed by a loaded wagon and four big strapping Irishmen.

With the aid of the Irishmen, and the help of the carpenters who had remained to watch, the motor was lowered down onto the new bed. This done, it only remained to fasten it down with six big bolts and connect the engine up with the shaft. A few minutes sufficed for this. Clay paid the Irishmen and the carpenters double wages for the time they had worked and they departed well pleased with their few hours' labor.

The boys then turned to the task of stowing the load the wagon had brought down. Part of this consisted of three barrels of kerosene, two of which they emptied into the _Rambler_'s tank, the third was placed up on the forward deck. The boxes and packages were taken below and their contents emptied into the lockers. "We haven't got space for a hundred pounds more stuff," Alex announced when they finished. "We are just about filled up."

"We are ready to start right now," said Clay with satisfaction, "but of course we cannot go until tomorrow's freight, and we can not go without Ike. I saw him this morning and he said he would be down tonight--likely would get down in time for supper. What do you say, boys, if we take a little spin just to try out our new motor and see if there's anything the matter with it. Turn on the oil at the tank, Alex, and then both of you stand by to cast off when I give the word."

The boys obeyed quickly, eager for the test, while Clay went back and fussed with the motor. Case and Alex waited long by the mooring lines for the signal to let go, but it did not come.

"Can't you start it?" Alex at last shouted impatiently.

"Sure," replied Clay, coolly. "I could start it right off, but it would be ruined in ten minutes without petting it up a little first. I've been filling up grease cups, putting oil in the lubricating tanks, and oiling up the working parts. You've got to watch those things closely with this kind of a motor or it will run hot and melt away its bearings. But I am about to start now. As soon as she starts throw off the lines, and you, Case, take the wheel."

In a moment there came a series of sharp explosions from the engine room. The boys cast off the lines and Case jumped back to the wheel. The _Rambler_ backed slowly away from the wharf. As soon as she was clear of the pier, Clay reversed the engine and the _Rambler_ was headed up stream.

Clay remained in the engine pit tuning up his new charge, trying it out slowly like a new race horse, striving to bring each working part into harmony with its fellows, now turning on a little more oil, or a little more air, again screwing down for less oil and increasing the air; his keen ear attuned to the throb of the exhaust whose varying notes told the story of the changes his tinkering had wrought. It was stuffy in the engine hold and once he raised his head above the coaming for a deep breath of fresh air. He grinned at the scraps of conversation that floated back to him from up forward.

"The _Rambler_ don't go like she used to go," Case was saying, gloomily, "every craft on the stream is passing us. Look at that Vixen behind. She is creeping right up on us now and the _Rambler_ used to make two miles to her one."

"Yes," Alex agreed, dejectedly. "Clay has handed us a lemon all right. It has turned the _Rambler_ into a floating hearse. Well, he meant it for the best and we must not show our disappointment. He'll feel bad enough about it himself when he finds out the mistake he made."

"Sure, there's to be no roasting of Clay," Case agreed, heartily. "He's the best one of us three."

Clay, still grinning, dropped down again into the hold and resumed his tinkering with air and oil tubes. He straightened up at last, and gave a sigh of satisfaction as his ear caught a new note in the throbbing exhaust, a low, mellow throb, throb, throb, regular and even. He had at last secured the right mixture of oil and air for the motor. He filed little notches on the air and oil cocks so that in the future the proper adjustments of air and oil could be made at a moment's notice. This done, he climbed out of the hold and made his way forward.

"Well, how's she doing?" he asked of the downcast two.

Alex tried to answer brightly. "She seems to go a wee mite slower than she used to, but maybe she'll do better when the new engine gets limbered up a bit."

"It feels dandy to be out in the _Rambler_ once more, doesn't it?" put in Case, hurriedly.

Clay turned aside to hide his grin. "Isn't that the Dingbat coming down on us from ahead?" Didn't we used to be able to outrun her?"

"No, she always used to beat us a little," Alex said, gloomily.

"Well, it's time we were turning back anyway," Clay observed. "When she gets past you, Case, turn around and follow her." He walked back to the hold grinning at the scraps of conversation that followed him.

"Think of him wanting to race the Dingbat, with this one-mule water wagon."

"And the Dingbat is one of the swiftest motor boats around here."

"Think of our hoping that he would tumble to his mistake by degrees and not get so rough a jar."

"Well, he had to know it some time. He isn't quite blind."

Clay reached the hold and dropping down into it, stood with head above the hatch coaming watching. He saw the Dingbat sweep past like an arrow, and Case, obedient to order, swing the _Rambler_ around in slow, clumsy pursuit. Then he reached down to the motor and shoving over the lever to make a quicker spark, turned on a little more oil and air. He could feel the _Rambler_ leap forward as he clambered out of the hold and walked forward.

The boys' faces were a study. Case, his mouth wide open, was handling the wheel and gazing ahead at the great foamy waves parting away from the bow.

Alex, leaning over the side, was watching the foam slip by while amazement and surprise stood out on his freckled face. "Clay," he shouted, "pinch me and see if I'm asleep or just plain crazy. Five minutes ago I was in a hearse, and now I'm in a flying machine."

"Oh, she isn't flying yet, laughed Clay. "She's only just getting off the ground. Face around and have a good look at the Dingbat."

The _Rambler_ swept past the Dingbat like a trolley car past a loaded wagon. The Dingbat's captain in assumed rage, rose to his feet and shook his fist at them as they swept by."

"Look here," he shouted. "I'm willing to race any motor boat around these parts, but I'll be hanged if I'll match my boat against a hydroplane."

"Want more speed, Case?" Clay inquired. "I've only got three-fourths of the power turned on."

"More speed?" yelled Case as he nearly swamped a passing row boat with the high waves which the _Rambler_'s bows sent rolling away from her. "More power?" he repeated, when the curses heaped on him by the row boat's crew had died away behind. "The balance of the power would drive her under water, loaded as she is."

"No," Alex grinned. "It would send all the water in the South Branch clean up into the city in a series of tidal waves."

Clay prudently set the timer at half speed. They made the run back to the dock in less than half the time it had taken them to go. The boys were jubilant over the motor.

"I'll bet she made 18 miles an hour on that first sprint," Alex exulted.

"Under full power and laden light, I am sure we can get twenty-two miles an hour out of her," Case said, confidently.

They found the two applicants for passage waiting on the wharf. "Hallo," said the big man heartily. "We come as we said we would. This is my partner. Partner Bill, and a right good partner too he is. Me and him have been partners for a right smart number of years. Ain't we, Bill?"

"Yes, Jed, but don't talk too much," growled Bill, who, though smaller than his partner, was a man of powerful build and heavily muscled, unlike Jed, however, his hands were dirty and his face bore the stamp of every evil passion.

"All right, Bill," said Jed, good-naturedly. "I guess this chap," indicating Case," told you fellows about the talk I had with him yesterday."

"Haven't I seen you two somewhere before?" Clay demanded before Alex or Case could reply.

Bill looked startled and Jed shifted his feet uneasily before he answered. "You might have seen us somewhere," he admitted, slowly. "We have been in Chicago all winter doing odd jobs to keep our bodies and souls together, 'till the spring thaw. Yes, you may have seen us working somewhere."

"It was last fall at Ike's news stand on the corner I first saw you," Clay spoke slowly and watched the two faces. Jed squirmed uneasily but the other came promptly to the rescue.

"That's where it was," he exclaimed. "We was strangers to the city and we stopped there to ask some directions, and had a right pleasant chat with the boy before we left."

"And I saw you there again," Clay continued.

"Like as not," interrupted the other. "We have hung around the stand a good deal this winter and Ike and us got to be real good friends."

"Yes, you seemed mighty good friends the last time I saw you together," Clay said, dryly. "It was only a couple of afternoons ago and you two were trying to rough house Ike and you might have done it too, if I hadn't seen the fracas and called the police."

Bill seemed at a loss for an answer for a second and then his reckless air came back. "We wasn't going to hurt him none--just scare him. We asked him for a dime to get a bowl of soup, 'cause we were nearly starved, and that miserable whining Jew----"

"Stop right there," Alex commanded. "Ike is a Jew but he is not miserable and he is not whining. He is manly and straight. He is one of our best friends and he is coming down this evening to go on this trip with us."

Clay had shook his head vigorously at Alex but the boy would not be stopped until he said what he had to say.

The effect on the two men was amazing. Anger and evil passions played over Bill's face like black clouds over a murky sky. Even Jed's good-humored countenance became downcast and troubled.

"Come on, partner," he said, plucking at Bill's sleeve. "They don't want you an' me here. Let's go and try somewhere else."

Bill, with a string of oaths on his lips, suffered him to lead him off the end of the dock where he turned and shook his clenched fist at the boys on the _Rambler_.

"He would sure be a nice one to have along on a trip," Alex grinned. "I'd be afraid to go to sleep for fear I'd wake up murdered."

"I'm sorry you told them Ike was going with us," Clay said severely. "If he had wanted them to know he would have told them, but he didn't. You could see that by their faces when you blurted it out. Well, it's done now and can't be helped. It's your turn to cook dinner, Case. After it is over, I'll show you both how to run the new motor. It's very simple. You'll soon be able to handle it."

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