Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/326

 Why, the people out there will be so worked up over your 'Papa, dear papa, set Uncle Tom free,' that they'll nightly wreck your hotel with showers of gold.'

"Thus, day after day, he cheered up the discouraged with that kind of breakfast food, and even convinced Little Eva's husband, Clarence, that he wouldn't be massacred for snapping the whip on Thomas. Once the troupe were in fettle he began daily rehearsals in the second cabin, and I began to anticipate a record business. The company was several degrees below punk in theatrical ability, but Tib had a way of taking a fourth-rate speed nag and training him up to the conviction he was a trifle faster than an electric current; and he did the same with that mediocre, simple, honest, and ill-advised bunch of misfits.

"The boat was one of Lord Blam's new line, and besides passengers she did a big freight business and was now carrying horses and farm implements to the colonies. Besides our adopted children, however, she had but few passengers, as it was the dull season. And we hadn't cuffed the deep blue more than four days when Tib met the girl.

"She was a radical English type, all blue eyes and peaches for complexion. Soon I observed the old chap was neglecting me to haunt her usual promenade like a mosquito. He and I were travelling