it."

"Did you bring along any extra legs or arms?" asked George.

"Nothin' much," replied Sam. His manner, however, to the boys seemed to
imply that he was holding some information in reserve and this fact at
once increased their curiosity.

"What have you got?" asked George.

"I have nothin' much, but an albuminoid rib."

"What kind of a rib?"

"That's what you call it. If it isn't that it's alkali."

"What kind of a rib is an alkali rib?" asked John.

"Why, it's one of those things that's about as light as paper. Here,
I'll show it to you," he added as he drew from his inner pocket a metal
rib, which he at once handed to Fred.

"That looks like aluminum to me," said Fred quickly.

"That's just what I said," retorted Sam. "I thought I'd bring it along
in case anything happened. I'll have some feet and hands comin' later."

"What for?" laughed Fred.

"What do you s'pose they're for? They're for you to wear."

"If you had brought along a head," said Grant solemnly, "it might have
been a good thing. I have known Fred to lose his several times."

"We don't furnish brains, we just use them," said Sam as he restored
the rib to his pocket. "Now, then," he added, "I'm goin' to give this
here boat an overhaulin' from stem to stern."

"There isn't anything wrong, is there?" inquired Fred anxiously.

"I told you I can't say yet," answered Sam. "I don't know until I have
investigated. Can't expect much when a lot of harem scarem boys are
driving such a machine as this is. Had any more trouble since I left
you?"

"We haven't had any," answered Fred. "We helped pull a couple of girls
out of the river yesterday."

"What was they doing in the river?" demanded Sam, looking up for the
first time since the arrival of the boys.

"What most people usually do when they can't swim," answered Fred.

"What was the trouble?" asked Sam.

"The chief trouble was," said Grant solemnly, "that they did not have
any alkali heads. Their heads were made of bone and were solid all the
way through."

"The worst of it is," broke in Fred, "that they said we were to blame
for spilling them into the river."

"Maybe you were," said Sam. "One never knows. Maybe they saw you trying
to steer this boat."

"That's it. That's it exactly," spoke up George quickly. "I hadn't
thought before why those girls were spilled out of the canoe. I don't
wonder they wanted to drown themselves when they saw the way Fred
steered."

"That's all rig