And so the breakfast was prepared as Captain Joe directed. The boys set out what little honey Teddy hadn't succeeded in getting hold of, and the pancakes were greatly enjoyed. But the Captain didn't finish his stunt.
"You boys are mighty good to an old man like me," he said.
"Mighty good!" repeated Clay. "Don't you remember when some sneak stole all the money we had been saving for a year to take us on the Amazon trip? Don't you remember how we hustled and got a little more together, and how you were afraid we wouldn't have enough, and might go broke in the Andes, and you took two hundred dollars and put it in a packet and told us to open it when we got into trouble? There is nothing on this boat you can't have, Captain Joe."
"Well," said the old man, "I didn't need the money, and, besides, I got it back. It didn't cost me anything to lend it."
"We needed it, though," grinned Alex, "and we might have been back there yet if we hadn't had it. You're the luckiest man I know of or it would never have been returned. And we were lucky, too."
"And now, if you don't mind," said Captain Joe, "we'll cut all this talk out. I'm going to stay with you boys just as long as you'll let me, and I don't want to hear any more talk about that consarned two hundred dollars. I've heard too much already."
"We think of it every time we see the white bulldog," laughed Case.
"By the way," said the Captain, "I've got that two hundred dollars in my jeans this minute, and if you should happen to want any of it just let me know. I really don't know what to do with it."
"Pigs will be flying when we use any more of your money, Captain Joe," Alex smiled. "We've got plenty of our own."
After breakfast, with Captain Joe at the helm, the boat was turned toward the Great Lakes. It was seven o'clock when they left Ogdensburg and at ten they were at Alexandria Bay.
"Suppose we keep on the Canadian side going up," Captain Joe suggested, "and then, when we come back, we can take the American side."
"Can you take the boat up and back without knocking off any of these headlands?" asked Alex with a wink at the Captain.
"Look here, young man," replied the Captain not at all offended, "I was dipping the water into this river before you were born. I can take this boat within an inch of every island and crag and headland between here and Lake Ontario and never scrape off an ounce of paint. I've sailed on the ocean, too, and all up and down the Great Lakes. This St. Lawrence river was always like a little pet kitten to me."