We could hear 'em talkin' us over, shoutin'
their comments above the rumble of the engine.
Vee and I didn't want to miss any of it, so we hikes up on the bridge
and camps behind the canvas spray shield. Captain Lennon come up, too,
sort of standin' guard. It was 'most like bein' under fire in the
trenches.
"That's her--the _Agnes_ of New York!" we heard 'em sing out. "My,
what a perfectly swell yacht, Minnie! Ain't they the boobs, though?
Hey, Sam, why dontcher ask them squirrels can they make a noise like a
nut? Huntin' pirate gold, are they? Who's been kiddin' 'em that way?"
"Little sample of Southern hospitality, I expect," says I. "All they
lack is a few ripe eggs and some garden confetti."
"I wonder if Auntie can hear?" giggles Vee. "Do you know what this
makes me feel like? As if I were a person in a cartoon."
"You've said it," says I. "What I mind most, though, is that fresh
gink with the searchlight. Say, Cap'n, why couldn't we turn ours loose
at him as a come-back?"
"Go ahead," says Captain Lennon, throwin' a switch.
Say, that was a great little thought, for the _Agnes_ has a
high-powered glim, and when I swung it onto that excursion boat it made
theirs look like a boardin'-house gas jet with the pressure low.
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