that for the balance of that day
they allowed the craft to drift as before. Tom and Sam started up a
fair-sized fire under the boiler, after making certain that the latter
was more than half-full of water. They knew enough about an engine
to locate the safety valve and saw that this was in working order.

"Now, if we get up steam we won't be blown sky-high anyway," said Sam.

While Sam and Tom were experimenting in the engine room, Dick and
Hans tried to make themselves familiar with the wheel and the things
on deck, and the oldest Rover studied the chart found in the cabin,
and the compass.

"I think we are about here," said Dick, when all came together in
the cabin, and he traced a circle on the chart with a lead pencil.
"Now if that is so, then we'll have to steer directly southeast to
reach Tampa Bay."

"Hurrah for Captain Dick!" cried Tom. "Dick, you get your diploma as
soon as we land."

"Well, isn't that right?"

"It certainly is according to the map," answered Sam.

"So all you and Tom have got to do is to furnish the power--and not
blow us up--and then you get your diplomas too."

"Vot do I got?" asked Hans.

"Oh, you get a big Limburger cheese," cried Tom.

"Vell, dot's putty goot too," answered the youth of Teutonic extraction.

"We'll arrange it this way," said Dick. "Tom can be engineer, Sam
fireman, myself pilot, and Hans can be admiral and crew combined."

"Vot does dot crew to?" asked Hans, eagerly.

"Oh, the crew swabs the deck and keelhauls the anchor," answered Tom.
"In between times you thread the yardarm, too."

"Vell, den I vill haf mine hands full, ain't it!"

"You eat so much you ought to do some work," said Sam. "If you don't
work you'll get as fat as a barrel."

With the coming of night our young friends looked to the lanterns of
the steam yacht and refilled those which were empty at an oil barrel
stored in the bow of the craft. Then they lit up, and also lit up
the cabin.

"I think we may as well cook ourselves a real dinner for this evening,"
said Dick. "No makeshift affair either."

All were willing, and an hour and a half later they sat down to the
table and ate as good a meal as the stores of the steam yacht afforded.
Evidently the craft belonged to some person of good taste, for the
eatables were of the very best.

"There, that puts new life into a fellow!" declared Dick, after the
repast was over. "If I only knew what had become of the _Mascotte_
and the other f