Tad was just going to pick up his wrench again, but he did not do it. He let it lie. He looked right straight at Jibby Jones. “To ring a fire-alarm bell!” he exclaimed. “It was at Europa, Nebraska,” said Jibby Jones, as if he was saying the commonest thing ever, “when the Missouri River went over the levee and swamped the lower part of the town. They used the bell in the steeple of the Methodist Church as a fire alarm and a house in the upper part of the town caught fire--up on the hill, you know--and they had to give the alarm, because it was at night. And the church was entirely under water, except the bell and the steeple. So my father and another man took a motor-boat and went to the church steeple and rang the alarm bell. But I never really saw a motor-boat used to climb a steeple.” We couldn’t say anything. We were stumped. He was too much for us. But he went right on: “I don’t mean to say it could not be done,” he said. “I suppose a motor-boat could be fixed with cog wheels or claws so it could be used to climb steeples. I expect that is what you meant.” “Oh, yes!” Skippy said. “That’s what we meant, of course!” He said it as sarcastical as he could, but this Jibby Jones did not turn a hair. “I suppose so,” he said. “I make it a rule never to doubt anything any one says, because such strange things can be done. I remember when I was on the St. Lawrence River--” “Don’t you mean the Nile?” interrupted Skippy. “Don’t you mean they used motor-boats to hunt hippopotamuses on the Nile?” “I suppose they do,” said Jibby Jones, “but I did not see them doing it when I was on the Nile. I was only going to say I saw them use a motor-boat to save one ninth of a cat on the St. Lawrence.” “One ninth of a cat!” cried Wampus, and began to laugh. “How would you save one ninth of a cat?” “It was starving to death,” said Jibby Jones, quite seriously. “We were at Clayton and some one brought news to father that a cat was on one of the Thousand Islands. They said it was so wild no one could get near it, but father loves cats and cats love father, so he said he would go in a motor-boat and save the cat from starving. So he did. He got the cat and brought it back to Clayton.” “But that was the whole cat,” said Wampus. “No,” said Jibby Jones quite seriously, “it was only one ninth of a cat. You know a cat has nine lives. And father said there was no doubt that cat had already lost eight of its lives by starvation, so, of course, what he saved was only one life, and that was only one ninth of the cat. I am sure that is right because we kept the cat for years and we always called it Ninth. That was the name father gave it, because it was only one ninth of a regular cat. We kept it until it was drowned in the Rio Grande.” He pronounced it Ree-o Grandy, but we knew what he meant. It is the river that is between Texas and Mexico. Tad drew a deep breath. “You must think you have been on nearly every river in the world, don’t you?” he asked.