could _back_ clean up town with _this_ load,
I sh'd hope!"

Janice had said nothing in reply to Frank Bowman's last query; but the
latter added, under his breath: "Goodness! Walky is pretty well
screwed-up, isn't he? I just saw him at the hotel taking what he calls
a 'snifter.'"

"Poor Walky!" sighed Janice.

"Poor Josephus, _I_ should say," rejoined Frank quickly.

The expressman was turning the old horse on the empty dock. There was
plenty of room for this manoeuver; but Walky Dexter's eyesight was not
what it should be. Or, perhaps he was less patient than usual with
Josephus.

"Git around there, Josephus!" the expressman shouted. "Back! Back! I
tell ye! Consarn yer hide!"

He yanked on the bit and Josephus' heavy hoofs clattered on the
resounding planks. The wagon was heavily laden; and when it began to
run backward, with Walky jerking on the reins, it could not easily be
stopped.

A rotten length of "string-piece" had been removed from one edge of the
dock, and a new timber had not yet replaced it. As bad fortune would
have it, Walky backed his wagon directly into this opening.

"Hold on there! Where ye goin' to--ye crazy ol' critter?" bawled the
freight agent.

"Hul-_lo_! Jefers-pelters!" gasped the suddenly awakened Walky,
casting an affrighted glance over his shoulder. "I'm a-backin' over
the dump, ain't I? Gid-_ap_, Josephus!"

But when once Josephus made up his slow mind to back, he did it
thoroughly. He, too, expected to feel the rear wheels of the heavy
farm wagon bump against the string-piece.

"Gid-_ap_, Josephus!" yelled Walky again, and rose up to smite the old
horse with the ends of the reins. He had no whip--nor would one have
helped matters, perhaps, at this juncture.

The rear wheels went over the edge of the dock. The lake was high,
being swelled by the Spring floods. "Plump!" the back of the wagon
plunged into the water, and, the bulk of the load being over the rear
axle, the forward end shot up off the front truck.

Wagon body and freight sunk into the lake. Walky, as though shot from
a catapult, described a parabola over his horse's head and landed with
a crash on all fours directly under Josephus' nose.

Never was the old horse known to make an unnecessary motion. But the
sudden flight and unexpected landing on the dock of his driver, quite
excited Josephus.

With a snort he scrambled backward, the front wheels went over the edge
of the dock and dragged J