"But I hain't had any dinner," said the fellow, with a cunning leer.

"Oh! we'll see that you get plenty to eat on the way. No use waiting here. Our time is limited, and we want to be going. Will you come along?" Jack said.

"Thet's all right, Mistah; yuh kin count on me, suh. A whole dollah yuh sed, didn't yuh, suh; and make out tuh git me back in Beaufort agin?"

"Yes, a dollar and a return ticket. Come along."

On the way Jack made several purchases that caused the hungry Pete to lick his chops, and hope he would be able to soon meet up with that promised lunch, for he was getting more and more hungry now with every pa.s.sing minute. That twenty-five cents in his pocket felt like it weighed a ton, too, and he wondered if the young fellow, who he saw was a Northerner or a Yankee, as all such are called below Mason and Dixon's line, would wait for him while he exchanged it in a saloon.

But Jack hurried along, so that they arrived at the place where the three boats had been tied up before Pete could quite make up his mind what he ought to do.

Jack determined that he had not returned any too soon. A little crowd of rowdies had gathered near, and were beginning to make remarks about the boats and those aboard. Beaufort was no different from any other place, north or south; there are always some rough characters to be found, and when the town lies on the water it is generally the case that they frequent the landings.

George was sitting on deck, apparently s.h.i.+ning up his gun. Jack knew, however, that this was all pretense, and that his chum wanted to let it be known that those in the motor boat flotilla were well armed, and, moreover, knew how to take care of themselves.

Pete was taken aboard the _Tramp_, because Jack wanted to talk with him while on the way. Then the start was made. Just as Jack had antic.i.p.ated, some of the fellows on the sh.o.r.e called insultingly after them.

"Don't pay any attention to them," he cautioned his mates.

It was hard to stand being abused without having done the least thing to deserve such treatment, but all the boys knew the wisdom of controlling their tempers under provocation.

Then, finding that no attention was paid to their remarks, the fellows started to hurling stones after the boats. Fortunately, when they thought of this means for making a display of their rowdyism, the small craft had gained such headway that they could not reach them with the missiles. Several splashed water aboard and came near striking home, but Jack breathed easy when he realized that they had pa.s.sed beyond range of the missiles.

"That's a fine bunch of scoundrels," he said, partly to Jimmy.

"They don't mean any harm, Mistah; that's on'y th' way they hes o'

havin' fun," Pete remarked, at which Jimmy laughed scornfully.

"Fun, is it?" he said, with a gleam of anger in his blue eyes; "sure it's little the big trotters 'd care if one of thim stones would be after hittin' us on the head and knocking the daylight out of us. Fun, do ye say? It'd give me great pleasure, so it would, to have a chanct to teach some of thim manners. An' I could do it, too, d'ye mind, for all I'm but a broth of a bhoy."

Jack began to ask a few questions of the fellow, whom Jimmy had soon supplied with an abundance of food.

"It's on'y a few miles tuh whar Mistah Spence holds out now, suh, an'

we kin git thar right peart in this fine little boat," the other was saying, when Jimmy broke into the conversation by exclaiming:

"Looky yonder, Jack, darlint; d'ye twig the two gossoons wagging a handkerchief at us? Holy smoke! I belave they've got a motor boat half under water, and do be havin' an accident of some sort. How now, Commodore, do we be after puttin' in to the rescue?"

"You're right, Jimmy," remarked Jack, "they have got a boat of some kind partly filled. Perhaps they went too near the sh.o.r.e and got snagged on a stump or a rock. But we just can't pa.s.s them by and pretend we don't see them. Listen, one is yelling."

"Help! we're wrecked! Come ash.o.r.e and take us off!" came the call.

"Hang the luck!" remarked George, "what else is going to detain us?

Seems to me we've just done nothing but hold out a helping hand ever since we started on this blooming trip."

"But you know the rules of the road, and the law of the cruiser--'do as you'd be done by,'" said Jack, who had changed his course and was heading straight for the sh.o.r.e, where the two men stood up to their knees in water beside their partly submerged motor boat.

"We hit something, and punched a hole in the boat," one of them explained, as Jack and his chums came up.

"And if you'd only give us a lift a few miles we'd be very grateful, and would gladly pay for what it was worth," the other, who looked like a lawyer, hastened to say.

"That's all right, gentlemen," Jack remarked, hospitably. "Climb aboard the big boat. We're only going a short distance, however, to a little place where Van Arsdale Spence is now living."

The two pilgrims who had been wrecked looked at each other in surprise.

"Why," said the shorter one, who seemed to be a man of some authority, perhaps a marshal, or even a sheriff of the county, "that's queer, but we're bound for that same place ourselves, strangers!"

CHAPTER XIX.

THE MESSAGE OF HOPE.

"Do you mean that you were on your way to see Mr. Spence at the time your boat struck a snag?" asked Jack, surprised and perplexed at the same time.

"That's just what we were, my boy," replied the other, looking curiously at Jack, as though naturally wondering what sort of mission could be taking this flotilla of Northern motor boats to visit the party in question.

Jack would have liked to ask questions, but realized that such a course would be bordering on the impudent. There might be numerous people interested in Van Arsdale Spence besides the young aviator whom they had agreed to a.s.sist by carrying the packet to the coast town.

"In that case you have only to remain aboard here, and we will land you. I have a pilot with me, to lead us right," he remarked.

"So I see, old Pete Smalling, eh? h.e.l.lo! Pete, struck a job at last, after looking for ten years?" remarked the man, winking at the hungry pa.s.senger, who was disposing of his food at a prodigious rate of speed.

"I reckon as I hev, Mistah Marshal," answered the other, with considerable of respect in his voice and manner.

So Jack knew his surmise was correct, and that the heavy-set individual was an officer of the law, after all. But what he could be going to see Spence for, was of course beyond his power to guess. The planter who had owned that fine place now seemed to be living in what might be called seclusion. Had he done anything for which he could be taken to task by the law? Jack hoped not, for the sake of that fine young aviator, Malcolm Spence, who must surely be some relative, and was deeply interested in his welfare.

The boats moved on in company, so that it was possible to converse back and forth if any of them so desired.

"I suppose this Mr. Spence must have lived around here quite some time?" Jack remarked a little later, as the man smiled encouragingly toward him.

"All his life, suh, all his life. He was born on that spot north of Beaufort; yes, and his father before him, I reckon. It never has gone out of the hands of the Spences up to now," came the ready reply.

"Oh! by the way, did this gentleman ever have any family?" asked Jack.

"I should reckon he did that, suh--three fine gals, an' just one son.

The gals they stick by him through it all; but the boy, he left the old man goin' on two yeahs now. It's nigh about broke his heart, I heah."

"I don't suppose that this son's name could have been Malcolm?"

suggested Jack, pretty sure of his ground now.

"That's just what it was, suh, Malcolm Gregory Spence. They was a time when we all 'spected he was going to make something out of himself, because you see the boy was mighty clever; but he quarreled with his old man and went off. P'raps he's dead by now. The old man thinks so, leastways; though one of the gals don't seem to believe that way."

Jack could see it all. In some way, Malcolm, estranged from his family, had managed to learn about their recent financial troubles, and that they had left the old home, to go, he knew not where.

And Jack, as he pressed his hand over the pocket where he had again secreted that mysterious missive, only hoped that it would bring joy and happiness into the home of the Spences. How pleasant it would seem to be the bearer of good news.

He said nothing more, though having discovered this much he could easily guess that the errand of the marshal must have some connection with the breaking of the last tie that would hold the Spence family to the old home up the Sound. Perhaps the marshal and the lawyer were on their way to inform the owner that foreclosure proceedings had been inst.i.tuted, and to get his signature to doc.u.ments that were necessary to the proper carrying out of the sad business.