CHAPTER XIX.

FROM TAMPA, NORTH.

Everybody was merry that night at supper but Nick. He tried not to show that he felt his sudden and unexpected drop from the top of the ladder to the lower rung; but it was hard work. His laughter was only a hollow mockery, so Josh declared; for the lean boy certainly did like to rub it into his fat chum when he had a chance.

Jimmy did not sleep well that night, though everything combined to make it a pleasant occasion for most of the others. Half a dozen times he would creep out of his blankets to see if the porpoise was still where he had tied it, and lying in shallow water. Evidently he feared lest some adventurous and hungry shark come nosing around, and attempt to run away with his prize, before its weight had been positively settled.

Once Jack heard him poking vigorously in the water with a pole, and muttering to himself.

"Want to take a lunch off me porpoise, is it ye'd be afther doin', ye sly ould thafe of the worrld?" Jimmy was saying, as he punched vigorously.

"What is it?" asked Jack, looking over the side of the _Tramp_; as he happened to be up just then, to find out what his shipmate meant by getting out long before the first streak of daylight was due.

"Sure, it's the bally ould crabs; they do be tryin' to nibble at me fish; and it kapes me busy shooing the same away," Jimmy answered back.

"But what's the use bothering, since we don't expect to eat the thing?" asked the other.

"Yes," said Jimmy, quickly; "but they say ivery little bit helps; and wouldn't I be the sad gossoon, now, if me fish weighed just the same as Nick's, with some missing where thim sassy big crabs had had a breakfast. Sure, I want all I got, till we weigh the beauty. Afther that they can have it all, for what I care."

"Oh! that's where the shoe pinches, does it?" chuckled Jack. "Well, perhaps you'd better sit up, and keep watch, Jimmy. But please don't shake the boat so much, and wake me again. It's only three o'clock, with the old moon near the eastern horizon. Me to bed again for another snooze."

When morning came Jimmy blandly informed Jack that he had actually spent the balance of the night with that pole in his hands, every now and then stirring the water in the vicinity of his prize.

"And I do be thinkin'," he added, triumphantly, "that the crabs niver got aven a teenty bit of me bully ould fish. Now to rig up that balance once more, and settle the question once for all."

"Now, just you hold your horses, there," spoke up Nick, shaking his head grimly. "You're wrong, that's what. Even if your old porpoise does happen to be a little heavier than my splendid jewfish, don't you think for a minute I'm going to give up the ship. I'll be warm on your trail, old chap, to the last gasp!"

"Hear! hear!" cried Josh, clapping his hands in a manner which was calculated to encourage both stubborn contestants. "I'm backing Nick for a game one. He's got the real bulldog grit, and don't you forget it, boys! And even if Jimmy wins this time, he'll have to watch out, or he'll find himself left in the lurch."

The rude balances were constructed as before, and after getting the porpoise ashore, it was duly weighed. Had it happened to be a close thing, Nick of a certainty would have entered a protest, and demanded that they tow the prize to the next town, where it could be tested on the dock with some capable scales. But it was quickly discovered that the porpoise was many pounds heavier than Nick's record; indeed, they decided finally, after making all due allowances, to put it down positively at two hundred and seventy-five pounds.

Even Nick concurred in this, although with a wry face, for he had clung tenaciously to hope up to the very last moment. And so the crabs had a chance to feast on the bulky object after all; though Jack declared that if they had had the time he would have liked to try and render the porpoise for its oil, just to say he had secured a supply that way.

"And think of the numberless fine shoe laces we're throwing away," sighed Josh, after they had abandoned Jimmy's prize.

After a fine run they made Miami, and spent a day in the enterprising little town; but all of them were anxious to be getting on, since they expected the next mail to be awaiting them at Tampa; and it had been a long time now since they had heard from the dear ones at home.

Tampa was reached without any further adventures, though Nick proved that his words had been no idle boast when saying that if Jimmy went up head in the little game of fish rivalry, he would leave no stone unturned in the effort to regain his lost laurels.

He never let a chance pass to put out one or more lines. And since size was now his one object in life, he no longer bothered with a rod and line. If the fellows wanted fish for eating purposes, somebody else must take the trouble to capture them, because he was too busy to bother with small fry.

So every night he would get out his shark hook, and set it in the best place he could find, where he believed he would have a chance to make a capture.

The tables had turned, and it was now Jimmy's turn to strut around with that look of superiority on his face. He would watch Nick's feverish labors, and just grin in a way that gave the rest of the boys great amusement.

But, although several sharks were caught, they seemed to be in league with Jimmy; for it was only the small fellows who took the hook. Nick's excitement, when he was working his catch in by the aid of a snubbing post which Jack showed him how to make, was always succeeded by bitter disappointment, after he had discovered the disgusting size of the caught sea tiger.

Not one of them up to now had weighed anything near the required weight. But all the time the sanguine fat boy lived in hopes of some fine day making a record strike.

The others hoped he would, seeing how much his heart was set on proving himself true game. This rivalry would prove to be a great thing for Nick. It had started him into doing things that otherwise he would never have dreamed of attempting, being somewhat given to laziness, as so many boys built after his stout fashion seem to be. And it had made him think, too, which was a fine thing; throwing him on his own resources, as it were, and bringing out many hidden attributes which the others had never dreamed he possessed.

At Tampa Nick insisted that George keep his word. So, as the three boats had been laid up in the yard of a boat builder, a new motor was installed aboard the _Wireless_. George was so devoted to his boat and its speed record, that he refused to be away from the scene of operations for any length of time.

"One day around Tampa is enough for me, boys," he had declared, when they tried to tempt him to accompany them on the second day. "I want to be around, and watch how they do this job. It would give me a bad jolt, you know, if I had to sacrifice speed for steadiness after all, when I'm hoping to combine both."

"Yes," laughed Josh, "it'd sure break George's heart if he couldn't just shoot through the water like an arrow. If he had his way he'd go at about the rate of ninety miles an hour."

"Make it an even hundred, Josh, while you're about it," George remarked, calmly; and meant it, too.

A number of days were passed in the hustling city on Tampa Bay. Jack had always been anxious to see the place; and during the time of their enforced stay they certainly took in every point of interest worth observing.

And of course the _Comfort_ was duly repaired in a proper manner while the opportunity offered. The boat builder complimented Jack on having done such a reliable job under such difficult conditions. He declared that the chances were, the repairs would have held out through the whole cruise, though it was best that they have the hole obliterated in shipshape style once for all.

But all of them were really glad when, one fine morning, after another Norther had blown itself out, and the big bay calmed down, the little flotilla of three motor boats started away from Tampa, headed south, so as to get around the end of the Pinellas Peninsula.

Nick especially was sighing for new chances to show what he could do in the fishing line.

"There must be sharks upwards of three hundred pounds and more that will take my hook," he declared, stoutly, to George, as they boomed along down the bay; "and in good time I'm going to show you something that will make you sit up and take notice, see if I don't."

"Say, she runs like oiled silk!" exclaimed the skipper of the new _Wireless_; and from this remark Nick realized that, according to George, all his affairs were as a mere dot compared with the great question as to what the new motor would do.

After trying the boat in various ways, George expressed himself as satisfied that he had made a good thing when he decided to have the engine changed. And all the others began to hope that the troubles of the speed boat skipper might now be in the past.

Tampa Bay is so big that the motor boats felt the swell almost as much as though they were upon the gulf itself. And that afternoon, when, after passing sharply to the right, they placed Long Key between themselves and the sea, all expressed themselves as pleased at the change.

Here they made out to pass the night. Nick could hardly wait until the anchors had been dropped before he was begging Jack to go off with the castnet, and get him a supply of mullet for bait, so he could begin his fishing operations. And as Jack was feeling that a supper of mullet would taste rather good, if so be the jumping fish proved to be plentiful, he did not have to be coaxed long.

Consequently the shark line was soon doing business at the old stand; and as usual there arose a wordy war between the two rivals concerning the finish of the game; each feeling stoutly confident that in the end he would be in a condition to carry off the prize.