Just remember the horseshoe I picked up on the
street in Mobile," urged Tom.
"Yes," Jack assented, "that's a fact. And, by the way, where did you put
that horseshoe? I haven't seen it since."
"I hung it up on the switchboard lamp bracket," said Tom.
"Well, it isn't there now," declared Jack.
"What's that isn't there now?" asked Arnold at that moment climbing the
companion-way from the cabin.
"Tom's horseshoe," Jack replied. "He says he hung it on the lamp over
the switchboard and now it's gone."
"Oh, that," scorned Arnold. "That was just a little bit of a mule shoe.
That wasn't a real full-sized horse shoe."
"All right, Smarty," bridled Tom. "Just tell us where you threw it
overboard and we'll make you go dive for it."
"It was swinging around and making so much noise I took it down and hung
it on the bracket there by the compass," replied Arnold pointing to the
missing article hung over the place indicated.
"Good night," cried Jack. "Here we've been trying to steer a compass
course in a thick fog all the way from Mobile with that thing there! No
wonder we've been hoodooed."
"Why, what's the matter?" innocently inquired Arnold.
Jack's answer was to take the horseshoe from its resting place and make
as if to fling it overboard. He restrained himself, however, and turning
to Arnold said quietly:
"Look here, young man, you evidently do not know how sensitive a thing
the compass is. But if you had done a thing like that on some vessels
they would have thrown you overboard.
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