“This is getting to be one of our usual strenuous trips,” announced Jack.  “I declare we never go anywhere, it seems, but we dash head foremost into excitement and trouble.  The only thing we need now to start us right is to discover a Boy Scout or two out here and we’ll be prepared to go ahead and have some adventure.”

“Never mind, Captain, we’ll find the Boy Scouts, all right.  Don’t think our luck will turn yet.  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.  You have rendered the compass useless and we have been steering by a crazy instrument.  Your horseshoe hanging there has deflected the needle to such an extent that we cannot even guess where we have been going.”

“I’m sorry,” contritely answered Arnold, “but I didn’t understand it that way.  I won’t do that again, that’s sure.”

“Thanks, awfully,” scornfully answered Tom.  “Maybe now you’ll agree that the thing is bigger than you imagined at first.”

“You’re right,” was Arnold’s reply.  “A little thing can be mighty big in some cases.  I’ll remember this for a long time.”

“Boys, I believe the fog is thinning out somewhat,” announced Harry.  “Maybe the old horseshoe is bringing us luck after all.”

“I believe you’re more than half right,” responded Jack.

“We’d better be on the lookout for breakers and things inside as well as outside,” declared Tom.  “Remember what that Carlos de Sneakodorus Madero did to us when our backs were turned.”