It was barely light when the Comet was hitched to the second raft ready for another try. Bob and Tom agreed that it would be best to say nothing about the adventure of the night to anyone except Jack and Cap’n Seth. The captain, of course, had to be told, as he was quick to notice that the steamer was not tied as he had left her, and Bob had no hesitation in telling his brother. “That must have been a peach of a fight,” the latter declared, after Bob had told him about it. “It was while it lasted,” Bob assured him. “I’m mighty sorry that I had to break his arm, but it was that or have the life choked out of me and——” “You did just right, of course,” Jack interrupted. “No one could blame you, so don’t worry about it.” “Look, Jack,” Bob suddenly cried, as he caught his brother by the arm. “There’s the Twilight towing one of Ben’s rafts.” “Sure’s your born,” Jack agreed. “It’s going to be a race to see who’ll get across first.” “It’ll be a race all right,” Bob said quietly. “A race of snails at about two miles an hour.” “That’s about the size of it,” Jack laughed. “But the Comet can beat the Twilight any day so I don’t think we need to worry.” “I’m not so sure about that last part of what you said,” Bob replied soberly. “It’s true that the Comet is the faster boat in an even race, but unless I’m much mistaken, the Twilight is hitched on to a smaller raft than the one we’re towing.” “Jimminy crickets, you’re right. I never thought about that,” and Jack too looked sober. “Let’s go and ask Cap’n Seth what he thinks about it.” They found the captain in the pilot-house steering. “I dunno,” he replied in answer to their question. “Course the Comet’s the faster boat, but if the Twilight’s hitched on to a smaller raft she might beat us. Reckon we’ll jest hav’ ter wait an’ see. Give her all she’ll stand, Reds,” he shouted through the speaking tube. The wind, which was light, was with them this time, and they were making good progress, but so was the Twilight. The two boats were now about two miles apart and it was plain, from the dense clouds of black smoke, that they were issuing from the Twilight’s stack, that her captain also was pushing her to the limit. “Cap’n Bill may be nuthin’ but a kid, but he knows how ter git out o’ the Twilight all the speed that’s in her,” Cap’n Seth told them as he cast an anxious eye from the window toward the other boat. “An’ he ain’t got more’n about 20,000 logs in that raft, an’ we’ve got thirty, an’ it takes a lot o’ power ter pull that extra 10,000 through the water, let me tell yer.” An hour passed and still another, and it could not be seen that either boat had gained on the other. Their course toward the same goal was bringing them, all the time, closer together and now they were not more than a mile apart.