I would tell you just what each one said when he found his voice, only Barry kept up such a barking and Tommy such a stuttering that the remarks were anything but intelligible. And the same may be said of the conversation which followed for the next ten minutes. Dan explained and defended and the others questioned and accused; and Barry barked hilariously and enjoyed it all immensely. But in the course of time order evolved from chaos, and with returning calmness came returning hunger. Tom stopped “dropping stitches” and hurriedly put luncheon on the table. And by the time it was ready the _Vagabond_ was tied up at the wharf where the _Sylph_ belonged. At table Dan gave the first clear, orderly narration of events. “You see,” he said, “when I got home I found that dad was getting ready to take a late train to Meriden on some business or other. But that wouldn’t give us much time with each other, so he said that if I’d come along he’d take the Norwich boat at six and go on from here this morning at 7.40. So that’s what we did.” “We never thought about the boat,” said Nelson sadly. “We got in about five this morning and had breakfast aboard. Then I showed dad the boat and he thought she was swell. Luckily I had the key with me and could get inside. Of course I was surprised to find you fellows weren’t aboard, but I thought maybe you’d gone to the hotel for dinner last night and that it had rained so hard you’d decided to spend the night there. But Barry was here and maybe he wasn’t glad to see me! Well, about half-past seven I saw dad off on the train. Then I came back and didn’t have anything to do. So I thought I’d like to see if I could run her myself. I’d watched Nel lots of times and was pretty sure I could do it. So I tried and there wasn’t any trouble at all. I thought you fellows would come along about eight and find the boat gone and have a fit. Then I was going to come back in time for the last spasm. But she went so well and it was such fun that I went farther than I meant to, and all of a sudden she got peeved and began to cut up.” “How?” asked Nelson. “She lost sparks and pretty near stopped. ‘Me to the rescue,’ thinks I. I’d seen you do stunts with the vaporizer thing, you know, so I tried my hand. Well, first thing I knew she wouldn’t go a foot! Just spit and sighed and sulked. I turned that wheel over about a thousand times, I’ll bet! Took my coat off and then my vest, and wilted my collar, but there was nothing doing. ‘Then,’ thinks I, ‘it’s up to little Dannie to do some towing.’ So I put the tender over and came down to change my clothes. That’s where I fell down.” “I should think so,” said Bob disgustedly.