Flood Tide | Page 9

his face.
"If I could answer that question, Zenas Henry, I wouldn't be standin'
here gapin' at the darn thing," was his laconic response. "It's just took a
spell, that's all there is to it. It was right enough last night."
"There's no accountin' fur machinery," Zenas Henry remarked.

The observation struck a note of pessimism that rasped Willie's
patience.
"There's got to be some accountin' fur this claptraption," retorted he, a
suggestion of crispness in his tone. "I shan't stir foot from this spot 'til I
find out what's set it to actin' up this way."
Zenas Henry laughed at the declaration of war echoing in the words.
"I've given up flyin' all to flinders over everything that gets out of
gear," he drawled. "If I was to be goin' up higher'n a kite every time, fur
instance, that the seaweed ketches round the propeller of my
motor-boat, I'd be in mid-air most of the time."
Willie raised his head with the alertness of a hunter on the scent.
"Seaweed?" he repeated vaguely.
Zenas Henry nodded.
"Ain't there no scheme fur doin' away with a nuisance like that?"
"I ain't discovered any," came dryly from Zenas Henry. "We've all had
a whack at the thing--Captain Jonas, Captain Phineas, Captain
Benjamin, an' me--an' we're back where we were at the beginnin'.
Nothin' we've tried has worked."
"U--m!" ruminated Willie, stroking his chin.
"I've about come to the conclusion we ain't much good as mechanics,
anyhow," went on Zenas Henry with a short laugh. "In fact, Abbie's of
the mind that we get things out of order faster'n we put 'em in."
Janoah Eldridge rubbed his grimy hands and chuckled, but Willie
deigned no reply.
"This propeller now," he presently began as if there had been no
digression from the topic, "I s'pose the kelp gets tangled around the
blades."

"That's it," assented Zenas Henry.
"An' that holds up your engine."
"Uh-huh," Zenas Henry agreed with the same bored inflection.
"An' that leaves you rockin' like a baby in a cradle 'til you can get the
wheel free."
"Uh-huh."
There was a moment of silence.
"It can't be much of a stunt tossin' round in a choppy sea like as if you
was a chip on the waves," commented Jan Eldridge with a
commiserating grin.
"'Tain't."
"What do you do when you find yourself in a fix like that?" he inquired
with interest.
"Do?" reiterated Zenas Henry. "What a question! What would any fool
do? There ain't no choice left you but to hang head downwards over the
stern of the boat an' claw the eel-grass off the wheel with a gaff."
Janoah burst into a derisive shout.
"Oh, my eye!" he exclaimed. "So that's the way you do it, eh? Don't
talk to me of motor-boats! A good old-fashioned skiff with a
leg-o'-mutton sail in her is good enough fur me. How 'bout you,
Willie?"
No reply was forthcoming.
"I say, Willie," repeated Jan in a louder tone, "that these new fangled
motor-boats, with their noise an' their smell, ain't no match fur a good
clean dory."

Willie came out of his trance just in time to catch the final clause of the
sentence.
"Who ever saw a clean dory in Wilton?"
Jan faltered, abashed.
"Well, anyhow," he persisted, "in my opinion, clean or not, a straight
wholesome smell of cod ain't to be mentioned in the same breath with a
mix-up of stale fish an' gasoline."
Zenas Henry bridled.
"You don't buy a motor-boat to smell of," he said tartly. "You seem to
forget it's to sail in."
"But if the eel-grass holds you hard an' fast in one spot most of the time
I don't see's you do much sailin'," taunted Jan. "'Pears to me you're just
adrift an' goin' nowheres a good part of the time."
"No, I ain't" snapped Zenas Henry with rising ire. "It's only sometimes
the thing gets spleeny. Most always--"
"Then it warn't you I saw pitchin' in the channel fur a couple of hours
yesterday afternoon," commented the tormentor.
"No. That is--let me think a minute," meditated Zenas Henry. "Yes, I
guess it was me, after all," he admitted with reluctant honesty. "The
tide brought in quite a batch of weeds, an' they washed up round the
boat before I could get out of their way; quicker'n a wink we were
neatly snarled up in 'em. Captain Jonas an' Captain Phineas tried to get
clear, but somehow they ain't got much knack fur freein' the wheel. So
we did linger in the channel a spell."
"Linger!" put in Willie. "I shouldn't call bobbin' up an' down in one
spot fur two mortal hours lingerin'. I'd call it nearer bein' hypnotized."
Zenas Henry was now plainly out of temper. He was well aware that
Wilton had