“Being wrecked on that island the other day was poor fun,” he declared.  “And it was dreadfully messy, too.  But this is the real thing, fellows!  Why, this old hooker might take it into her head to go down ker-plop any minute!”

“Huh,” replied Wink Wheeler, “that may be your idea of the real thing, Perry, but it isn’t mine.  I’m just as strong for adventure as you, sonny, but I prefer mine on top of the water and not underneath!”

“Shucks,” said Joe, “this thing can’t sink.  Look at all the lumber on her!”

“Yes, but it might get water-logged,” suggested Bert from the door of the deck-house.  “Wood does, doesn’t it?”

“Not for a long time,” said Joe.  “Years, maybe.  And this lumber’s new.  You can tell by the looks of it.”

“Well, don’t be to sure,” advised Perry, darkly.  “You never can tell.  And there’s another thing, too.  We’re top-heavy, with all these boards piled up on deck here, and if a storm came up we might easily turn turtle.”

“Oh, dry up,” said Han.  “You’re worse than Poe’s raven.  Besides, she couldn’t turn over, you idiot, as long as the lumber floated.  She’d have to stay right-side up.”

“Wish we had a barometer aboard,” said Joe.  “We’d know what to expect then.”

“You mean we’d know what you’d tell us to expect,” replied Perry ironically.  “And then we’d get something else.  For my part, I’m glad they took their old barometer with them.”

“They took about everything that wasn’t nailed down except the stove,” said Wink.

“That’s nailed down, too,” said Bert.  “Or, at least, it’s bolted.  How many do you suppose there were on board when the storm hit them?”

“About five, maybe.  Perhaps six.  I guess five could handle a schooner this size.  Five are handling her now, anyway,” Joe added.

Nothing of moment occurred during the afternoon, if we except occasional squalls of rain, until, at about five, those on the schooner observed a smudge of smoke to the southward that eventually proved to be coming from an ocean tug.  The tug approached them half an hour later and ran alongside the Adventurer.  The boys on the Catspaw saw the boat’s captain appear from the pilot-house and point a megaphone toward the white cruiser, and glimpsed Steve replying.  What was said they could only surmise, but the tug’s mission was evident enough.

“He wants the job,” said Joe anxiously.  “Wonder if Steve will let him have it.”

“I hope he doesn’t,” said Wink.  “We can do the trick without anyone’s help, I guess.  Besides, he’d want half the money we’ll get.”

“More than half, probably,” said Han.  “He’s still talking.  I wish he’d run away smiling.”

He did finally.  That is, he went off, but whether he was smiling they couldn’t say.  They fancied, however, that he was not, for the Catspaw would have made a nice prize for the tug’s owners.