old float which they had
found, and had ridden gayly upon it; and their course had been so
leisurely and rambling that they had not yet reached Poughkeepsie, when
all of a sudden the engine stopped.

Roy went through the usual course of procedure to start it up, but
without result. There was not a kick left in it. Silently he unscrewed
the cap on the deck, pushed a stick into the tank and lifted it
out--dry.

"Boys," said he, solemnly, "there is not a drop of gasoline in the tank.
The engine must have used it all up. Probably it has been using it all
the time----"

"You make me sick," said Pee-wee.

"I have known engines to do that before."

"Didn't I tell you to get gasoline in Newburgh?" demanded Pee-wee.

"You did, Sir Walter, and would that we had taken your advice; but I
trusted the engine and it has evidently been using the gasoline while
our backs were turned. _We_ should worry! You don't suppose it would run
on witch hazel, do you?"

"Didn't I tell----" began Pee-wee.

"If we could only reduce friend Walter to a liquid," said Roy. "I think
we could get started all right--he's so explosive."

"Bright boy," said Tom.

"Oh, I'm a regular feller, I am," said Roy. "I knew that engine would
stop when there wasn't any more gasoline--I just felt it in my bones.
But what care we!

'Oh, we are merry mountaineers,
And have no carking cares or fears--
Or gasoline.'

Get out the oars, scouts!"

So they got out the oars and with the aid of these and a paddle
succeeded in making the shore where they tied up to the dilapidated
remnants of what had once been a float.

"There must be a village in the neighborhood," said Tom, "or there
wouldn't be a float here."

"Sherlock Holmes Slade is at it again," said Roy. It would have been a
pretty serious accident that Roy wouldn't have taken gayly. "Pee-wee,
you're appointed a committee to look after the boat while Tomasso and I
go in search of adventure--and gasoline. There must be a road up there
somewhere and if there's a road I dare say we can find a garage--maybe
even a village. Get things ready for supper, Pee-wee, and when we get
back I'll make a Silver Fox omelet for good luck."

The spot where they had made a landing was at the foot of precipitous
hills between which and the shore ran the railroad tracks. Tom and Roy,
carrying a couple of gasoline cans, started along a road which led
around the lower reaches of one of these hill