ot know exactly where
he could find him. He looked at his office window, and found that it was
shut. He asked one of the waiters, whom he met coming up stairs from the
cabin, if he knew where the captain was. But the waiter did not know.
Presently, he saw a gentleman walking back and forth upon that part of
the deck which is in front of the door of the ladies' cabin. He thought
that he was the captain. Marco walked up to him, and accosted him by
saying:

"Are you the captain of this boat, sir?"

"Am I the captain?" asked the man. "Why? What do you want to know for?"

"Because, if you are," said Marco, "I have lost your bucket."

"Lost my bucket!" repeated the gentleman. "How did you lose it?"

"I lost it overboard," said Marco.

Here the gentleman laughed, and said, "No, I'm not captain; but you seem
to be an honest sort of boy. I don't know where the captain is."

All this, though it has taken some time to describe it, took place in a
very few minutes; and the boat had now advanced only so far as to be
opposite the steam mill which Marco had seen just before he had left
Forester. Marco happened to see the mill as the boat moved by it, and he
went immediately to the side of the boat to get a better view of it.

There was a chimney for the smoke, and a pipe for the waste steam, at
the mill. From the steam-pipe there issued a dense column of vapor,
which came up, however, not in a regular current, like the smoke from
the chimney, but it was puffed up in regular strokes, making a sort of
pulsation. While Marco was looking at it, Forester came along, and stood
looking at it too. There were a great many logs lying about the shore,
and enormous piles of boards, which had been sawed, and which were ready
for the vessels that were to come and take them away.

"What makes the steam come up in puffs?" asked Marco.

"Because, it is what they call a high pressure engine," said Forester.
"It works against the pressure of the atmosphere. All such engines throw
out the steam in puffs."

"Why do they?" asked Marco.

"Do you know what the cylinder of a steam engine is?" said Forester.

"Not exactly; I don't remember it very well," replied Marco.

"Come with me, then," said Forester, "and I will show it to you."

So saying, he took Marco to the engine of the boat, and showed him, in
the midst of the machinery, a large iron vessel, shaped like a hogshead,
only it had straight sides. Marco could not see much more than the t