"Say, he don't look bothered a teenty bit!" exclaimed Josh, surprised because Jack seemed so free from care.
"And look at him, would you!" burst out Herb; "why, blessed if he ain't grinning right now, to beat the band!"
"Here, own up, Jack, old boy, what's got you? Didn't you care much whether you ever got that mysterious packet into the hands of this Spence fellow?" demanded George.
"To be sure, I did; and do yet," replied Jack; "but that's no reason why I ought to go around pulling a long face and whimpering, especially since no milk has been spilled after all."
"But, sure, it was the ould coat as I saw go over!" ejaculated Jimmy, stubbornly.
"I guess it must have been, because I just can't find the same anywhere," admitted the other, nodding.
"And ye put that packet in the inside pocket, beca'se I saw ye," Jimmy went on.
"Yes, I did," Jack chuckled; "but then none of you saw me take it out again later and stow it in another place. You see, I seemed to have an idea my coat might get lost, because half the time I have it off."
"Then the packet is,—where?" asked George, brightening up.
"Down in the bottom of my fishing tackle box at this very minute, and not in the stomach of a Watchapreague shark!" declared Jack, confidently.
"Hurrah! Count another for our wise ould chum, Jack. He's got the long head, so he has. Let's have a squint at the documint again, now. 'Twould be good for sore eyes to glimpse the same!" Jimmy declared, enthusiastically.
So Jack had to get out his fishing tackle box, and, dipping down into its depths, produce the valuable packet.
After that, preparations for supper were allowed to go on apace. As for the missing coat, Jack declared that it did not amount to much, anyhow, as he had another handy. And besides, with a sweater to fall back upon in case of cold occasions, he had no regrets.
"I wonder will we really find this party, when we get around Beaufort?" Herb remarked, as they sat there, watching Josh wrestle with the broken crackers which, with the large pan of oysters, were to form the mess which, cooked as best they could over the red coals of the fire, would form the main part of the meal.
"We will, if anybody can," replied Jack, with determination in his manner.
"You just bet we will," affirmed Nick, showing unexpected interest in the idea.
The fact was, despite the many raw oysters he had swallowed, Nick was almost famished, and was trying the best he knew how to keep his attention from the slow preparations being made for supper.
But all in good time the meal was pronounced ready. Josh, in lieu of an oven in which to bake his scalloped oysters, had kept the pan on the fire, with a cover over the top; and really it had been pretty well browned.
They pronounced it simply delicious. Nick softened toward his ancient tormentor, Josh, and, patting him on the back, declared that when it came to cooking he had them all "beaten to a frazzle."
"What's that light away off there to the south, Jack?" asked Herb, after they had eaten to a standstill.
"I rather fancy that must be the Hog Island Light," replied the other. "Before we make that, we have to cross another inlet, this time over a mile wide; but they say Little Machipongo isn't in the same class as that last one, for danger and ugly currents."
"Gee! I hope not," grumbled Nick, who was scraping the pan in which the oysters had been cooked so beautifully.
"Then comes Great Machipongo Inlet, and a few more for tomorrow, after which we are due to reach Cape Charles," Jack went on, always ready to impart information when he saw that his chums wanted to know anything.
"This whole coast seems to be a series of bays and sounds, connected by little creeks and channels that, at flood time, can be safely navigated by a boat that don't happen to draw many feet of water," Herb remarked.
"Yes, and that is the case pretty near all the way from New York to the lower end of Florida," Jack observed. "Some day it's going to be possible to make the entire trip as easy as falling off a log. The Government is doing a heap of dredging in lots of places."
"Yes," remarked George, sarcastically; "if they'd only put some of the millions in here that they squander on good-for-nothing creeks in the backwoods, it'd be done in no time."
"Huh!" grunted Nick, "I'd just like to have the fat contract for dredging out some of these muddy creeks. Say, mebbe a fellow wouldn't get rich on the job, eh? I think I'll have to mention it to my dad, for he's keen on contracts, you know."
They passed a pleasant evening. Jimmy was easily induced to get out his banjo and give them many brisk tunes that seemed to just go with the plunkety-plunk of the joyous instrument.
"Seems like a banjo just chimes in with Southern scenes," remarked Herb.
"Oh! shucks! this ain't the Sunny South yet awhile, Herb," laughed Josh. "Wait till we get down in South Carolina, anyhow, where we'll run across some palmetto trees. That gives the real tropical flavor."
"If there were only some monkeys frisking about in the feathery tops, it'd add a heap to it, in my opinion," remarked Nick.
"Or a few coy mermaids," laughed Jack; "but then our friend here wouldn't find it quite so easy to climb to the top of a palmetto as to tumble overboard."
"Let up on that, won't you, Jack? It's mean, rubbing it in so hard," complained the object of the roar that followed.
In this way, then, the evening passed. As the mosquitoes began to get in their work later, the boys changed their minds, and concluded to sleep aboard, instead of on shore, as they had at first intended.
With the morning, things began to happen again. Breakfast was eaten first, and then Jack, who had been assisting George examine his motor, discovered the cause of the unfortunate stop, so that the freakish engine was now apparently all right again.
They crossed both the Machipongo Inlets without any accident, though it was evident that the skipper of the Wireless was more or less nervous, and kept hovering close to the other boats, with an eye on the ropes which they kept coiled in the stern.
And Nick also crouched down in the body of the boat, gripping some substantial part of the framework, with the grim air of one who had determined not to be pitched out into the water again, come what would.
Both heaved plain sighs of relief when the crossings were made without the least trouble. Cobb's Island now lay close by, and beyond were several more openings, where the sea connected with the shore waters. But these were small compared with those already navigated, and with a fair amount of caution they had no need to borrow trouble longer.
"There's what we're aiming to reach by evening, fellows!" remarked Jack, about the middle of the afternoon.
Following the direction in which his extended hand pointed, the others could see a lighthouse not a great way ahead, though it might take some time to reach it by way of winding connecting creeks.
"The great Cape Charles Light, ain't it, Jack?" demanded Herb.
"Just what it is," replied the commodore.
"Then, tomorrow we'll have to cross the mouth of the Chesapeake and arrive at Norfolk or Portsmouth; is that the programme?" asked George.
"If everything looks good to us, yes," replied Jack, seriously. "We want to take as few chances, you know, as we must. And that twenty miles is a big trip for our little craft. All depends on the wind and the sky. But there are always lots of boats around here; and if we got in a peck of trouble they'd help us out."
"That's a comfort," remarked Nick. "It was bad enough dropping overboard in that inlet, and I don't hanker to try it in the ocean itself. Excuse me, boys; I pass. I've shown you how to do the trick; some one else take the next try."
"We'll hope there isn't going to be any next, like the little boy's apple core," Jack laughed.
Then they had to drop into single file as the channel narrowed again, with the pilot boat Tramp leading the way as usual.
"This is Smith Island, and the one on which the lighthouse is built. We ought to bring up there in short order now, when the mouth of the bay will be spread in front of us like a picture," Jack called, over his shoulder.
"All very nice," grumbled Nick; "but as for me, I'd much rather it was spread out behind us," and George doubtless echoed the thought, though too proud to show any nervousness over the prospective trip on the open sea.
At least Jack's prediction came true, for they did succeed in making the point of the island where the Cape Charles Light stood, a beacon to all vessels trying to enter the great Chesapeake Bay.
Far across the heaving waters lay Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Fortress Monroe, the Government station. Near here one of the most important naval engagements of the Civil War was fought, when Ericsson's "cheese on a raft," the Monitor, faced the terrible Confederate ironclad ram, Merrimac, and forced her to retire, after it seemed as though the entire wooden United States navy was to be at the mercy of the enemy.
No doubt many of these events thronged the minds of the four high school lads as they stood there on the sandy beach looking across that stretch of sea toward the object of their expectation. And George, with Nick a good second, must have devoutly wished the labor of the next twenty-four hours were completed, with the little fleet at safe anchorage off the town of Norfolk, which they had determined to visit, so as to get their mail, and secure a few fresh supplies, since the hungry Nick was making a terrible hole in what they carried.
And on this October night they camped ashore under the gleaming Cape Charles Light.
In the morning, after they had eaten an early breakfast, the boys called on the keeper of the light, and were allowed to climb to the top of the tower. Here a glorious panorama was spread before them, with many miles of the sea to the east, the sandy shore line stretching far to the dim north, and one of the most beautiful pictures opening out to the southwest, where lay Norfolk and those other places of interest, across twenty miles of green waters that glistened in the early October sunlight.
Jack asked many questions concerning tides and prevailing winds. He also noted the lay of the course they must follow in making their passage across to the other side.
The genial keeper gave him numerous points that might be of value. He also declared it as his opinion that they could not have a better day for the trip, as the sea was comparatively smooth, and the wind light, as well as from a favorable quarter.
And so the boys returned to their boats, determined to make the effort to cross while the chances were so much in their favor.
Nick was only waiting to be invited aboard the good old Comfort; and Jack, who believed that it would be better to have only one to occupy their attention in case anything went wrong with the untamed speed boat, asked George if he had any objections to letting his crew change ships, to which the other immediately replied that such a thing would please him immensely.
"I can manage her much better without a cargo, fellows," he declared, earnestly. "Now, listen to him, would you, calling me a cargo?" whimpered Nick; but while he thus pretended to be offended, it was laughable to see how quickly he made the transfer, as though afraid Jack might change his mind, or George want him to stay.
About nine o'clock the start was made, as the tide would be most favorable around that time, the lighthouse keeper had told them.
Since the Comfort had been overhauled she was capable of making better time than previously, when she was known as the "Tub" by the rest of the boys. Herb declared he could take her across in two hours, though Jack privately believed it would be nearer three before they reached Norfolk.
It turned out to be a hedge, just two and a half hours elapsing from the time they made the start until they drew up near the big wharves at Norfolk.
However, time was not giving these happy-go-lucky lads the least uneasiness just at present, so long as they did reach port in safety.
"And it's just as well we started so early," Jack remarked, "because the wind is freshening all the while, and it will be blowing great guns out there before long.
"Hey, Josh! why not make a change again, and you get aboard the Comfort?" proposed Nick, who hated to give up a good thing.
"No you don't," retorted Josh, "not any for me. You just go and stew in your own gravy, will you? Took me a whole month to get the creak out of my bones after the last time you coaxed me to change places. Over you get, now, or else it's a ducking for yours, my boy," and Josh advanced in a warlike manner on the fat youth.
So, sighing like a martyr, Nick felt compelled to clamber into the speed boat.
"You ought to have one for your own sweet self," declared George, as he grasped the gunnel to keep from being tossed overboard, for Nick careened the boat dreadfully upon climbing in. "Why, you just don't know how fine the old Wireless acted on the way over, with only me aboard."
"I wish I did have a boat, as big as a house," declared Nick. "I'm wasting away to a mere shadow trying to keep my balance in this wedge. If I forget to breathe with both lungs at the same time he tells me I'm upsetting the equilibrium of the blessed thing. I feel most all the time like I'm the acrobat in the circus trying to stand on one toe on top of a flagpole."
After they had tied up, Herb was dispatched for the mail, while Jack went to buy a few provisions. Nick bombarded him with such a fearful list of things he wanted him to purchase that Jack had to thrust his fingers in his ears.
"What do you take me for, Nick, a dray horse?" he laughed. "I'd have to be, to carry the load you'd want. I've got a list of things we must have, and that's all I'll promise to lug down here. If you want anything else, you'll have to go after it yourself."
"All right, I'll do that," said Nick, promptly.
"Sure; and please tell me where you expect to stow all that truck?" demanded George, immediately, with a frown. "Not aboard the Wireless, I promise you, my boy. She's got all she can carry in hauling you around, without a sack of potatoes, a ham, and all that truck you mentioned. Hire a float, and perhaps we'll tow it behind us."
Nick said not another word, being completely squelched, as Josh put it.
Leaving Norfolk, they started up the broad Elizabeth River, meaning to take the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, which had long ago been cut through the Great Dismal Swamp and connected with Currituck Sound, that noted ducking place where so many large gun clubs have their headquarters.
Entering this canal, they moved along steadily through the balance of the afternoon. On all sides lay the most interesting sights; for the moss hung heavily on the dismal-looking trees, and the boys thought they had never seen a more depressing picture than was now presented to their gaze.
"Say, Jack, do we get out of this place tonight?" asked Herb, who was not particularly fond of swamps and such ghostly places.
"No, we made out to start a little too late to get to the little river beyond before night sets in," Jack replied.
"But there's a pretty good sized moon now, you remember, and we might keep on. I'm afraid it'll give me the jim-jams to sleep in this horrible old swamp," Herb went on to say.
"Like to oblige you," laughed Jack; "but the fact is we're going to tie up mighty soon now. Only looking for a half way decent place."
"What's all the hurry?" grumbled the pilot of the Comfort.
"Look aloft and you'll soon see," came the reply, which caused Herb to cast his eyes upward.
"Holy smoke! we're going to get some storm, I take it!" he immediately exclaimed, as he saw heavy clouds mounting upward. "And to think that nobody discovered the fact but you, Jack. Yes, I reckon, then, we'll have to tie up, and get George's boat tent up before she comes. I'll just have to grin and bear it."
"That's the way to talk, Herb," said Josh. "What difference does it make to us, tight in our snug little hunting cabin? If anybody made a kick it ought to be the poor Wireless crew."
"Here, don't you waste your breath pitying us, now," flashed the jealous George, who could never bear to have any one but himself run his boat down.
There seemed but little choice of a camping place, since the shores of the canal proved to be pretty much alike; so presently Jack threw up his hand as a signal that he meant to stop, and the three boats were soon being tied to trees.
"You'd think Herb expected a tornado, and wanted to make sure his old houseboat didn't get carried away," laughed George, as he watched the other secure both ends of the Comfort with cables, that he tested again and again.
"Oh, well, you never can tell," replied the other, without showing the least ill will; "and 'a stitch in time saves nine,' they taught me at home. 'What's worth doing at all is worth doing well', and sometimes it pays."
"It always pays in a contented mind," remarked Jack, who admired this positive trait in Herbert's nature, so different from George's flighty ways.
It was the case of the hare and the tortoise over again with these two; and while the speedy hare lay down to take a nap, confident of winning, the slow going tortoise was apt to come along and get to the goal first, after all.
The rain held off for a while, and they were able to cook supper ashore, though Josh kept as anxious eye on those dark clouds overhead while he worked.
"It's going to prove a big fizzle after all," remarked Nick, after a little water had come down, and the moon peeped out of a break in the clouds.
"Perhaps so; you never can tell what the weather will do," Jack laughed. "But all the same we'll be apt to sleep aboard again, for fear it does rain before morning."
"You bet we will," remarked Herb; "at least this chicken does. Ugh! I'd wake up, and think a raft of snakes was creeping out of that old swamp there. Are you all of the same mind about bunking aboard?"
"If anybody will go me, I'll stay ashore," announced Nick, to the surprise of his chums; but then they knew the narrow confines of the speed boat cramped his ample form, and that explained his boldness. "That is, if George will only let me have his gun too."
"Sure I will, and only too glad," declared that worthy, eagerly. "I'd like to stretch all over the bally old boat myself, for once."
Jimmy took up Nick's offer, and so Jack set to work making them a rude sort of canopy that was calculated to shed water fairly well. It was composed of branches from nearby trees, and might be called a hunter's lean-to.
When the time came for retiring, the two boys lay down under this, drawing their blankets around them, for the night air was chilly.
"If it rains too hard, crawl in where you belong," was the last instruction Jack gave them before seeking the bed he had made in the Tramp's interior.
Later on all was silent about the camp on the canal. From the swamp near by various queer sounds might have been heard, had any one remained awake to listen; but as the boys were all pretty tired, no doubt they slept well.
It might have been in the middle of the night that Jack was aroused by a loud shout, which he recognized as coming from Nick. Wondering what it meant, he immediately started to climb out of the boat, gun in hand, when there came a tremendous report. Evidently Nick, whether he had seen something suspicious or was dreaming he did, had fired George's borrowed gun!
"Whoop! I got him!"
That was certainly Nick shouting in an exultant strain; and as Jack glanced in the direction of the lean-to he saw the fat boy hunching his pudgy figure out, gun in hand—for the moon had not yet set in the west.
Then Jack caught the sound of something struggling in the brush close by. Not knowing what it might prove to be, he was in no hurry to jump over that way.
"What did you shoot at, Nick?" he demanded, as the excited boy scrambled awkwardly to his feet, and appeared anxious to renew the engagement; at the same time Jack made sure to lay hold on the other's gun, lest he open fire recklessly.
"I d—d—don't know for sure," stammered Nick; "but it looked awfully like a tiger."
"What?" exclaimed Jack, astonished. "Why, don't you know there isn't such an animal in North America?"
"Might have been a striped skunk, Jack?" suggested Josh, who had poked his head out from the cabin of the Comfort.
"Or a zebra escaped from a menagerie," Herb remarked.
"All right, have all the fun you want, fellows," said Nick, doggedly; "but all the same, whatever it was, I got it."
"That's just what he did, boys, I reckon," Jack declared; "because you can hear it kicking its last over yonder in the bushes. Here, where's that lantern of ours, Jimmy? I let you have it, remember? Light up, and show me the way in there."
Jimmy quickly applied a match to the wick, and as the light flared up, he swung the lantern in his hand.
"Who's afraid?" he said, boldly, as he started toward the spot where silence now reigned. "Come along after me, Jack, darlint; and please remimber that if the beast springs at me, I depind on you to knock spots out of him. Keep back, the rest of ye, now, till we solve the puzzle."
Jack kept his gun in readiness, for there could be no telling what lay beyond that fringe of bushes.
"I do be seein' somethin' there on the ground, Jack. Looky yonder, honey, an' sure ye can't miss the same, by the token," Jimmy presently said, in a low, strained voice, as he pointed a trembling finger ahead.
"Yes, I see something," Jack admitted. "Go on, Jimmy, take a few more steps. No matter what a ferocious monster it may prove to be, I rather guess Nick nailed it with that charge of shot at close range."
They kept on advancing, and the nearer they drew the bolder Jimmy seemed to grow, until presently both boys stood over the victim of Nick's fire.
Then they broke out into a shout that made the weird echoes leap out of the depths of Dismal Swamp.
"Tare and ounds!" burst forth Jimmy, "if 'tisn't a shoat afther all he killed."
"Say rather a full grown razorback pig," laughed Jack, as he noted the sharp snout of the rooter, and its slab sides.
Jimmy immediately bent down and gripped the beast by one of its hind legs.
"'Tis a roast of frish pork we'll be afther havin' the morrow," he declared. "They do be sayin' that these same Virginia pigs have the flavor of the bist Irish pork; an' I've always wanted to try the same. Think of Nick being the one to give us this trate. And if we iver run up against the owner, it's Nick must stand the cost. A tiger, did he say? He must have been saing double stripes the time."
When they backed into the camp, and the defunct pig was shown, a chorus of yells arose from the balance of the crowd. Even Nick joined in the whooping.
"Laugh all you want to, fellows," he remarked, as he assumed a proud attitude, leaning on his gun as though posing for his picture, with that wild boar at his feet, as the spoils of the hunt. "I thought it was a wild beast about to attack the camp; and as the only one awake at the time, I believed it my solemn duty to give him both barrels, which I did. And what's more, you see that I got him. Now, what do you say about my marksmanship, Josh Purdue?"
"Not a word," returned that worthy, throwing up both hands. "Why, you peppered the poor beast from bow to stern. Won't we have a fine time picking the shot out of our teeth, if we try to eat him? But Jack, do they ever make use of such awful thin-looking hogs as this?"
"Of course, they do," replied the other, quickly. "All razorbacks are thin. They live in the woods and swamps, feeding on mast, which means acorns and nuts and sweet roots. That's what gives their flesh the sweet taste it has, a sort of gamey flavor, they say, though I never really ate part of a genuine razorback."
"But you will now, I hope," remarked Nick. "This is my treat, and I hereby cordially invite you, one and all, to partake with me when our chef has a chance to cook one of these fresh hams."
"He just wants us to be in it as deep as he is, so if the owner shows up we'll stand by him," chuckled Josh.
"Well, we ought to stand back of him," asserted Jack; "because Nick really rested under the belief that he was protecting the camp from the prowling monster. Of course, we accept your kind invite, Nick; and now, let's get back under the blankets as fast as we can, because it's kind of cool out here."
All of them made haste to do so save Nick, who lingered for some time to fairly gloat over his quarry. Seldom had the fat boy been enabled to bring down any species of game worth mentioning, so that his excitement was easily understood.
On the next morning Jack cut up the lean pig, having a fair knowledge of the methods employed in such a case. Of course, none of them just fancied living off some man's property, and if they could only find out who the owner of the razorback was they would have only too gladly paid whatever it was worth.
But whether they ever did find him out or not, it would be a wicked shame to let all that sweet meat go to waste. And that very morning they had some pretty nice chops from the pig's ribs, which gave them a taste at any rate.
That morning they continued to move south through Currituck Sound. There were some ducks in sight, and more arriving, but only an occasional discharge of a gun came to their ears. Once Jack pointed to a wedge-shaped line of geese standing out against the clear sky far above, and heading still further south for some favorite feeding bar.
That night they camped on Roanoke Island, and the boys knew that they had made gallant progress through a portion of North Carolina.
"Tomorrow we will, I expect, get through Albemarle Sound, which is something like twenty-five miles in length," Jack remarked, as around a cheery fire that night they talked of what lay just before them.
"And after that, what?" questioned Herb.
"There's a lighthouse at the head of the narrower Croaton Sound, and if you look over there to the east right now you'll see the one on Body Island at Oregon Inlet. We've got to cross there first of all, you see."
"More inlets beyond that, are there?" asked George, trying to look indifferent.
"Two more before we reach Hatteras in Pamlico Sound, and known as New Inlet and Loggerhead. That last one is a hummer, too, I understand; but it can't be any worse than some we've successfully negotiated," Jack answered.
"Particularly that Watchapreague one," chuckled Josh, "where the jolly mermaids lie in wait to coax all handsome fellows overboard."
"Huh! that's right," remarked Nick; "and I noticed that you stayed aboard all right, Josh."
"Nothing to bother about with any of them, if only the boats behave half way decently," declared Jack. "If the engine of the Wireless hadn't balked just when it did, George wouldn't have had any trouble."
"And I'd have been saved my bath," chuckled Nick.
"But what of me, kind sors?" broke in Jimmy, in his thickest brogue, assumed, no doubt, for the occasion. "I'd have lost me chanct to win immortal glory. Didn't I be afther fillin' that beast of a shark with lead, so that his cronies they tore him into bits, an' devoured him in a jiffy. Give the divvle his dues, boys."
"Yes," Jack hastened to say, "give Jimmy all that's coming to him, fellows. He deserves it," at which there was a roar.
Starting again in the morning, the southward run was resumed. All were now in a good humor. They seemed to be able to surmount any and all difficulties as fast as they arose; and this disposition made them light-hearted in the extreme.
One of the hams had been cooked in an oven on the preceding night, and proved to be very tender eating after all.
Albemarle Sound was passed, and the one beyond it. Even the dreaded Loggerhead Inlet proved to be a hollow mockery, in so far as giving them any real trouble went, for they crossed it with the utmost ease.
With several hours of daylight still ahead, they entered upon the great wide Pamlico Sound, which in places is all of twenty miles from shore to shore. As it is extremely shallow in many places, this body of water makes a treacherous sailing ground, and many a boat has met with disaster while navigating it.
They had not been an hour afloat on Pamlico before Jack was sorry he had started. Once more clouds had scurried above the horizon, and were mounting with great fleetness. And this time he believed that the storm would not prove a tempest in a teapot, as the last one had turned out to be.
Vainly they looked about them for a haven of safety. There was absolutely no point of land where the water was of sufficient depth to allow of their finding a temporary harbor.
The clouds were climbing higher with a rapidity that told of the wind that must soon sweep across that wide body of water with cruel violence.
"Whew! perhaps we ain't in for it now!" called George, as he drew up closer to the others, to find out what Jack had to say; for strange as it might seem, when peril confronted the boys of the Motor Boat Club, they seemed to turn toward Jack with much the same confidence the needle shows in pointing directly to the north.
"What can we do, Jack?" asked Nick, in more or less alarm, as they plainly heard the distant growl of thunder; and in imagination the fat boy could see himself in the cranky speed boat, as she caught the full force of the wind, and turned turtle in the twenty-mile sound, amid the crash of the storm.
There was no time to waste.
One last glance around told Jack the necessity for prompt action, if he wished to pull the little flotilla out of the bad hole in which they seemed settled.
The storm was racing up from the southwest, beyond the distant mainland. Consequently, the eastern side of the great shallow sound would presently become a boisterous place for craft the size of theirs.
"We've got to head into it, fellows!" was his decision, as he began to change the course of the Tramp to conform with his views.
It looked like heroic treatment, but neither Herb nor George murmured. They saw what the commodore had in mind, and that every mile they were able to forge ahead would decrease the peril. Indeed, if they could only manage to reach a point close in to that western shore, they would escape the brunt of the rising waves, and only have to think of holding their own against the wind itself.
"Full speed, Comfort?" called Jack, waving an encouraging hand toward the other.
Now George found himself perplexed as to what his course should be. He knew he could make almost twice the speed that the lumbering broad beam boat was able to display at her best. The question was, did he dare risk it?
True, the Wireless was in more danger out on that wide stretch than any of the others, and it seemed good policy for him to speed for shelter. But what if one of those exasperating breakdowns, to which the mechanism of the narrow boat seemed subject, should take place without warning?
George shuddered as he contemplated such a possibility. He could easily imagine his feelings upon being cast helplessly adrift in the midst of a raging gale, with his tried and true chums hidden from his sight by the rain and blowing spindrift.
And so his decision was quickly made. Of the two evils he chose what seemed to be the lesser. He would stick to the fleet. Then, in case of trouble, they could help each other like comrades.
Jack had kept an eye on the Wireless, for he guessed that just this puzzling question would come up for George to solve. And when he failed to see the speed boat shooting away, leaving the others in the lurch, he understood that the wise skipper had decided on the better way.
They were making fine headway, but all the same the storm was doing likewise; and unfortunately, at the time, they happened to be quite a few miles away from the shore that promised shelter.
"What ails George, do ye know?" questioned Jimmy, who could not understand why the other did not make with all speed ahead, as he had been known to do on a former occasion, considering that the best course.
"That sudden stop on the part of his engine gave him a bad feeling," was Jack's reply. "He doesn't trust it as he did, and is afraid that it may repeat when he is in the midst of the storm. So he's going to stick by us, through thick and thin."
"It does his head credit, I'm thinkin'," declared Jimmy; and then, as he stared hard into that inky space ahead, that was gradually creeping up toward them, he continued: "Sure now, do ye think we can make it, Jack darlint?"
"Well, we've just got to, that's all," the other replied, firmly. "If the wind doesn't blow us right out of the water, we'll keep on bucking directly into it. The fight will be a tough one, Jimmy; but make up your mind we must win out. Half the battle is in confidence—that and eternal watchfulness."
It was in this manner that Jack Stormways always impressed his chums with some of the zeal by which his own actions were governed. That "never-give-up" spirit had indeed carried him through lots of hotly contested battles on the gridiron or the diamond, wresting victory many times from apparent defeat.
So they continued to push steadily on. Jack counted every minute a gain. He kept a close watch upon the surface of the sound, knowing that here they must first of all discover the swoop of the gale, as its skirmishing breath struck the water.
The last movement of air seemed to have died out, yet this was the calm that often precedes the coming of the storm, the deadly lull that makes the tempest seem all the more terrible when it breaks.
Jack calculated that they had been some five miles from the western shore at the time they changed their southern course, and headed to starboard. And as Comfort could do no better than ten miles an hour, under the most favorable conditions, it stood to reason that about half an hour would be needed to place them in a position of safety.
"We won't get it, that's flat," he was saying to himself, as he noted the way in which the clouds gathered for the rush.
Picking up the little megaphone which he carried, he shouted a few sentences to the others. While the air around them remained so calm, the thunder was booming in the quarter where that black cloud hung suspended, so that talking was already out of the question unless one used some such contrivance for aiding the voice.
"George, better fall in just ahead of us, where we can get a line to you in case you have engine trouble. Two sharp blasts will tell us that you want help. Herb, try and keep as close to me as is safe! We must stick it out together, hear?"
Both of the other skippers waved their hands to indicate that they understood, and doubtless George was given fresh courage to find how calm and confident Jack seemed to face the approaching difficulty.
The land was now less than two miles away, and a faint hope had begun to stir in Jack's heart that there might be enough delay to allow their reaching a point of safety.
This, however, was dissipated when he suddenly discovered a white line that looked as though a giant piece of chalk had been drawn along the water. The squall had pounced down upon Pamlico, and was rushing toward them at the rate of at least a mile a minute.
"Hold hard!" shouted Jack through his megaphone.
Then he devoted himself to engineering the Tramp's destiny. Jimmy knew what was expected of him in the emergency, and was nerved to acquit himself with credit. While his skipper showed himself to be so cool and self-possessed Jimmy could not think of allowing the spasm of fear that passed over him to hold sway. What if that line of foamy water was increasing in size as it rushed at them, until it assumed dreadful proportions? The Tramp had passed safely through other storms, and with Jack at the wheel all must be serene.
So Jimmy crouched there at the motor, ready to do whatever he was told—crouched and gaped and shivered, yet with compressed teeth was resolved to stand by his shipmate to the end.
Then the foam-crested water struck the flotilla with a crash. First the narrow Wireless was seen to surge forward, rear up at a frightfully perpendicular angle, until it almost seemed as though the frail craft must be hurled completely over; and then swoop furiously down into the basin that followed the comber.
George held her firmly in line, and somehow managed to keep her head straight into the shrieking wind, though he frankly confessed that his heart was in his mouth when she took that header.
But almost at the same instant the other boats tried the same frightful plunge, and they, too, survived. Jack gave a sigh of relief when he saw that all of them had passed through the preliminary skirmish unharmed, for it had been that which gave him the greatest concern.
And now the work began in earnest. They had to fight for every foot they won against the combined forces of wind and wave. Had they been a mile or so further out in the sound, so that the seas had a better chance to become monstrous, nothing could have saved any of them. And Jack's chums once again had reason to be thankful for the far-seeing qualities which their commodore developed when he changed their course, and headed into the teeth of the coming gale.
At least several things favored them now. George's boat seemed to be behaving wonderfully well, for one thing. Then again, after that first swoop the gale had slackened somewhat in intensity, as is frequently the case; though presently they could expect it to become more violent than ever, when it caught its second wind, as Jerry expressed it.
Then, another hopeful thing was the fact that with every yard passed over they were really getting the benefit of drawing closer to the shore that was serving as a sort of shield from the wind.
The seas too gradually declined, since there was lacking the water necessary to build them up.
Jack had one thing to worry over. He knew that on such occasions considerable water would be swept from the western side of the sound, and this was apt to send the boats aground unless luck favored them. Such a condition would keep them from going further in any great distance, since the risk of striking became too pronounced.
"It's all right, Jimmy!" he called to his helper, knowing how anxious the latter must necessarily be; "we've got to a point now where we're safe. We could even drop our mudhooks over right here, and ride it out, if we wanted. But it's better to go on a little further."
"Whoo! wasn't the same a scorcher, though?" Jimmy shouted, a sickly grin coming over his good-natured, freckled face.
"It was some wind, I'm thinking," Jack admitted. "I wasn't a bit afraid about the Tramp or the Comfort, but there's no telling what that trick boat, Wireless, will do, when you don't expect it. But everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high."
"Sure it will, if ever ye get a sight on one with that bully little gun; and it was poor hungry Nick I heard sayin', by the same token, that he liked roast goose better than anything in the woide worrld except oysters!"
Ten minutes later and Jack blew a blast upon his conch shell horn that told the others they were to come to anchor. Whereupon there was more or less hustling, as the crews got busy.
Presently the three little motor boats rode buoyantly to their anchors, bobbing up and down on the rolling waves like ducks bowing to each other. And as they had made out to select positions within the safety zone of each other, it was possible for those aboard to hold conversations, if they but chose to elevate their voices more or less, in order to be heard above the shrieking wind and dashing waves.