concerned; for I don't know
any more about this motor now than I did when he began. The tap of my
intelligence always seems to be turned off the minute anything
technical or mechanical is mentioned. Some of those things he said
sounded more like the description of a lunatic asylum than anything
else, and the only impression left on my mind is one of dreadful gloom."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it seems impossible that anything which has to do so much at
the same time as this engine does, can remember to do half of it. It
will certainly fail, and blow up with those we love on board. I never
thought of that until now, and shouldn't if Hendrik hadn't explained
things to me."

"We can't blow up unless the petrol gets on fire," said I, "and as the
tank's away at the bow of the boat and the petrol descends to the engine
by gravity and not pressure, you needn't have nightmare on that
subject."

"That's another horror I hadn't realized," groaned Starr. "I took things
for granted, and trusted other people to know them. A whole tank of
petrol at the bow! How much will there be in it?"

"Enough to last four days."

"One of the ladies is sure to set it on fire when she's curling her hair
with a spirit-lamp. Yet we can't forbid them to curl their hair on their
own boat. Perhaps they'd better sleep on the barge, after all. I meant
it to be for the men of the party."

"Nonsense," said I. "They're reasonable creatures. Besides, Miss Van
Buren's hair curls naturally."

"How can you know?"

"Well, I do." And before my eyes arose the picture of a bright goddess
of foam and spray.

"Hum! I begin to see which way the wind blows. I'm not sure she isn't
the one I myself----"

"We were talking about the motor," I cut in. "The water jacketing seems
thoroughly carried out; and when the party's assembled on deck, it will
hear no more noise than the buzzing of a big bee, as the exhaust is led
away below the water-line. It won't be bad in the cabins either, even
when they keep the sliding door open, for this screen of thick
sail-cloth will deaden what sound there is. And it was a smart idea to
utilize the power of the magneto to light up the whole boat with those
incandescent burners."

"Your mechanical information, on top of Hendrik's, is giving me a kind
of acute mental dyspepsia," sighed Starr. "I hate well-informed people;
they're so fond of telling you things you don't want to know. Still, I
realize that you're going to be usef