The Golden Boys Along the River Allagash
Levi Parker Wyman
9781465658340
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“What do you suppose can be the matter with the pesky thing?” The speaker, a freckled faced boy about eighteen years old looked up from where he was kneeling on the bottom of the boat in front of the engine. “Search me,” his companion, a tall lanky boy of about the same age, who was sitting in the stern, replied. Gas’s all right, spark’s all right, everything’s all right and still she won’t go. Can you beat it?” “And I’ll bet I’ve cranked it enough to run her the length of the lake,” the first speaker declared, wiping the sweat from his face. “It’s the queerest thing. An automobile engine can have a dozen things the matter with it and still run but you can get one of these little dinky marine engines all in perfect order and then it’s ten to one she won’t more than give a kick or two.” “Reckon that’s just because it’s a motor boat engine,” and the boy in the stern laughed. “It’s all right to laugh, but suppose you come here and give her a few spins. Mebby it won’t seem quite so funny then.” “Gladly, Sweet Cherub, and you just watch her go.” The two boys exchanged places and the lanky one, kneeling in front of the refractory engine was soon spinning the fly wheel while the freckled faced boy sat back and grinned. “There, she coughed six times. That beats your record by one.” “Keep it up and you may get her up to seven.” But six seemed to be the limit of the engine’s willingness and soon he gave it up. “No use to crank your head off,” he panted as he got to his feet. “She just won’t go that’s all, and—” The freckled faced boy, who happened to be looking toward the shore, interrupted him: “There’s Jack Golden on the hotel porch. He can fix about anything that’s fixable. Hello, Jack. Come out here a minute, will you?” Jack Golden, a sturdy well set up boy of about the same age as the others, glanced up from the paper he was reading, and, seeing who was calling him, ran down the steps. “Hello, Cherub. What seems to be the main difficulty?” he asked as soon as he reached the end of the pier. “There’s no ‘seems’ about it. It just won’t go that’s all.” “Where there’s a result there’s always a reason,” Jack declared as he jumped into the boat. “Sure your gas and spark are all right?” “Yep, and so’s everything else except that she won’t go.” “This is a make and break engine isn’t it?” “Yep, but mostly break,” the lanky boy laughed. Jack was busy removing a brass plate from the top of the engine which covered the timing gear. He then opened the pet cocks and slowly turned the fly wheel. “She seems to explode all right, but wait a minute till I get this side plate off so I can see when the pistons are up. There, that’s better. Number one is hitting at just the right time but number two is a trifle too soon,” he declared after turning the engine over a few more times. “That timing arm has been bent a little. Guess we’ll have to take it off and straighten it.” It took but a minute to take the piece out and with a strong pair of pliers Jack carefully bent the arm very slightly. “There, now let’s see what she’ll do,” he said as soon as he had replaced the lever. He gave the wheel a couple of turns and the engine began purring as though it had never had the slightest intention of stopping.
