"Plenty," snapped the merboy. "You are my guest, and I look after all the details, such as swimming and so forth, just as your other host would look after all the details, such as eating and so forth. If you are going to be a scarecat I'll drive right back home again, for I don't like cats of any kind." "I'm not afraid," said Jimmieboy. "I trust you, Mermy." "Thank you," said the merboy, dropping one rein to squeeze Jimmieboy's hand. "Thank you very much. You will find your confidence is well placed, for as long as you are with me as my guest you can stand on your head miles deep in water without being in any danger of drowning. Why, if you couldn't, I never should have thought of bringing you along, for in a very few minutes we come to a turn in our road and then we shall drive down under the water three miles and a half, and, what is more, you won't even know you are under water unless I tell you." So Jimmieboy was reassured on the one point concerning which he had been a little timid, and he proceeded at once to enjoy everything he saw. In silence they drove on and on, and as the ocean was as smooth as glass they covered a great many miles in a few minutes. Suddenly the merboy reined in his dolphins with a sharp jerk, which caused the carriage to stop with such suddenness that Jimmieboy was nearly thrown out of his seat. "What's the matter?" cried Jimmieboy, a little alarmed at this sudden stoppage. "Nothing wrong?" "No," said the merboy, shortly. "But there might have been. Look ahead of you there." Jimmieboy did as he was told, and saw in an instant why the merboy had stopped short. A great big ocean steamer was ploughing its way through the waves at a tremendous rate of speed directly across their path. "Don't you see?" said the merboy, as the steaming monster passed on, leaving a great strip of white foam behind it; "we were nearly run down that time. It is dreadful the way these steamers are allowed to ignore the safety of the rightful occupants of the seas. On land, when a railroad crosses a driveway, they make the trains go over or under a road in many places, and where they don't do that, they make them put up fences or bars and station men to signal people who are driving of the approach of trains. Out here they are perfectly lawless. They cross our drives on the level always, and never yet has one of the steamers whistled or rung a bell to warn a fish to get out of its way." "It doesn't seem right, does it?" said Jimmieboy. "No, it doesn't," replied the merboy; "and the meanest part of it all is the steamship people don't care. If I had my way they'd be compelled to fence in their routes all the way over, and station signal-men in boats at road crossings to warn us of impending danger. Why, if it hadn't been for our own police, police that we have to pay ourselves, you and I would have been run down just now." "You don't mean to say you have police out here on the ocean?" said Jimmieboy.