them. We'll be back long before they want to come aboard again."
"In that case I'll have nothing more to say."
"Don't you believe it?"
"I'm bound to believe it, if you say so."
"Don't get impudent, young man!"
"I am not impudent, and you needn't get impudent either!" cried Fred, his anger rising. "You are in command here, but this boat is under charter and just now I represent the man who owns that charter. If you have got to cruise around to test the engine and shaft well and good, but if you are merely cruising around for the fun of it I say go back to where we came from—none of us want to do any cruising to day."
At this plain speech the mate grew purple in the face. He raised his hand as if to strike the youth, but just then Aleck came on deck, carry ing a pitcher of ice water in his hand.
"Stop dat! Don't yo' go fo' to hit dat boy!" cried the colored man. "If yo' do I'll fling dis watah pitcher at yo' head!"
"You shut up, you rascally nigger!" shouted the mate. "You have nothing to say here!"
"I'se got somet'ing to say if yo' hit Massa Fred," answered Aleck, and held the water pitcher as if ready to launch it at the mate's head.
