shallows in near the shore, where they had been fishing for
their breakfast, and there were many strange feathered creatures to be
seen, such as the boy had never up to now set eyes upon.

Some of the crew were trailing fish lines astern and every now and then
a prize would be hauled aboard, which later on might afford a meal for
passengers and workers.

Andy soon made his appearance, the rising sun having sent a few slant
rays into his sleeping quarters and aroused him by falling on his face.

"This is something like, eh, Frank?" he remarked, as he drew in a big
breath of the bracing morning air.

"I should remark, yes," was the other's reply.

"We've apparently left all our dangers behind," Andy ventured. "That is,
I mean there's little likelihood of our being robbed of our precious
machine now, with both government officials and envious revolutionists
left in the lurch."

"I was just asking Felipe and he says we shall have another day and
night of bucking up against this nasty current. You see, Andy, it's on
an unusually big bender right now, which makes it doubly hard to fight
it."

"Oh, well, what can't be cured must be endured, I guess. So I'll try to
take it as easy as I may and be thankful it's no worse," Andy replied.

The morning passed without any event worth mentioning. And all the while
they kept steadily at the business of eating up some of the two hundred
miles that Felipe assured them lay between Magangue and the city at the
mouth of the big river.

Another thing was worrying Andy, however. He finally broached the
subject to his comrade knowing that in this way he would get relief.

"That blessed old engine has been doing bully for a long time now,
Frank, but judging from past experiences, she's due for another sulky
fit soon. Whatever would we do if she let down all of a sudden, while we
were right in the worst kind of a swift current? My! we'd be carried
miles downstream before we could do anything."

"Oh, no we wouldn't!" remarked the other, smiling.

"Then you've been thinking it all over and made ready to offset a balk,
I bet anything," declared Andy, with vehemence.

"Do you see that anchor forward?" asked Frank, pointing from where they
stood on the raised deck aft. "Well, that's got a good long stout chain
attached and is placed where a kick will send it over. Notice old Quita
squatting close by? Think he's taking a snooze, he seems so quiet? But
all the time the old chap's on the