LEADING THE PROCESSION — 22 MILES AN HOUR 



By H. H. Russell 



We did not stack up very heavily on 

 provisions, for we proposed running 

 into a harbor every night, so that we 

 could land and forage whenever we 

 needed to replenish the galley. I had 

 always done a little boasting myself 

 about how I could cook a steak, and 

 poach an egg, so Billy appointed me 

 chief cook, as he said he would have 

 enough to do steering the boat and 

 cranking the engine. I forgot to men- 

 tion that there were three of us in the 

 party, but the other hardly counted, for 

 he was only a terrier with an abnormal 

 bump of curiosity. We were to start 

 Saturday morning early. Our plan was 

 to run up the Sound by slow stages 

 along the New York and Connecticut 

 shore, then cut across and come down 

 the whole length of Long Island. Ac- 

 cording to our calculations this would 

 give us ample loafing time in some of 

 the beautiful little bays along the route, 

 and besides Billy had promised to call 

 for a party of friends on the way back 

 and take them for a day's cruise. 



We got off early on Saturday morn- 



ing as per schedule with everything in 

 shape except the condensed milk, which 

 we forgot. Billy had filled up with 

 fifty gallons of gasolene the day before 

 and had put the engine in first-class 

 working order. That is, he said he had, 

 but he must have gotten something 

 twisted, for it was quite a while before 

 he could get the flywheel to run smooth- 

 ly, and it was only after much bad lan- 

 guage on his part and much jeering 

 from me that he discovered that he had 

 turned on the gasolene at the engine, 

 but had altogether forgotten to turn it 

 on forward at the tank; thus he had 

 obtained three or four explosions and 

 the machine had stopped dead. After 

 testing the spark and looking over the 

 wiring Billy next turned to the float in 

 the carburetor and found that he could 

 not reach it, so then, going forward, he 

 opened the gasolene cock and the float 

 came up in a short time and with one 

 further turn of the flywheel we were 

 off. This is how Billy explained it to 

 me and I'll take his word for it. 



I had been kind of scary of going 





