Those searchlights are getting dimmer."
"I believe you're right," says Old Hickory.
Half an hour more and there was no doubt about it.
"Humph!" says Auntie. "I was sure we could do it."
And Mr. Ellins is so tickled that he orders up a couple of bottles of
his best fizz, so all hands can drink to the U. S. Navy.
"Long may it wave," says J. Dudley Simms, "and may it always stick to
its new motto--Safety First."
He got quite a hand on that, and then everybody turned in happy. As I
went to sleep the _Agnes_ was still joggin' along at her best gait, and
it was comfortin' to know that our wrathy naval friends had been left
hopelessly behind.
I expect I must have been poundin' my ear real industrious for five or
six hours when I hears this distant _boom_, and comes up in my berth as
sudden as if someone had pulled the string. Sunshine was streamin' in
through the porthole, and I was just wonderin' if I'd slept right
through the breakfast gong when _boom_! it came again. There's a rush
of feet on deck, some panicky remarks from the man up in the bow, a
quick clangin' of the engine-room bells, and then I feels the
propellers reversed.
"Good night!" says I. "Pinched on the high seas!"
I didn't waste much time except to throw on a few clothes; but, at
that, I finds Auntie scrabblin' out ahead of me and Captain Killam
already on deck.
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