To this Gray agreed, and the next day, when Jack went on board the packet "Swiftsure," he found Mr. Francis Gray going aboard also. Mr. Beal had warned Jack that he must not let anybody from the packet get to the clerk's office ahead of him,--that the first paper deposited for record would take the land. Jack wondered why Mr. Francis Gray was aboard the packet, which went no farther than Madison, while Mr. Gray's home was in Louisville. He soon guessed, however, that Gray meant to land at Port William, and so to head him off. Jack looked at Mr. Gray's form, made plump by good feeding, and felt safe. He couldn't be very dangerous in a foot-race. Jack reflected with much hopefulness that no boy in school could catch him in a straight-away run when he was fox. He would certainly leave the somewhat puffy Mr. Francis Gray behind. But in the hour's run down the river, including two landings at Minuit's and Craig's, Jack had time to remember that Francis Gray was a cunning man and might head him off by some trick or other. A vague fear took possession of him, and he resolved to be first off the boat before any pretext could be invented to stop him. Meantime, Francis Gray had looked at Jack's lithe legs with apprehension. "I can never beat that boy," he had reflected. "My running days are over." Finding among the deck passengers a young fellow who looked as though he needed money, Gray approached him with this question: "Do you belong in Port William, young man?" "I don't belong nowhere else, I reckon," answered the seedy fellow, with shuffling impudence. "Do you know where the county clerk's office is?" asked Mr. Gray. "Yes, and the market-house. I can show you the way to the jail, too, if you want to know; but I s'pose you've been there many a time," laughed the "wharf rat." Gray was irritated at this rudeness, but he swallowed his anger. "Would you like to make five dollars?" "Now you're talkin' interestin'. Why didn't you begin at that eend of the subjick? I'd like to make five dollars as well as the next feller, provided it isn't to be made by too much awful hard work." "Can you run well?" "If they's money at t'other eend of the race I can run like sixty _fer a spell_. 'Tain't my common gait, howsumever." "If you'll take this paper," said Gray, "and get it to the county clerk's office before anybody else gets there from this boat, I'll give you five dollars." "Honor bright?" asked the chap, taking the paper, drawing a long breath, and looking as though he had discovered a gold mine. "Honor bright," answered Gray. "You must jump off first of all, for there's a boy aboard that will beat you if he can. No pay if you don't win." "Which is the one that'll run ag'in' me?" asked the long-legged fellow.