"Quick, Mrs. Carrington," he spoke to the older lady, "get aboard the launch as fast as you can."

The woman's girl companion helped her get to her feet, but she pitched about so that but for a clever movement on the part of Frank she would have gone into the water.

"Oh, dear! oh, dear!" she screamed, but with the aid of the younger woman Frank managed to get her into the launch, where she dropped in a heap and went into hysterics. Her companion got aboard more quietly.

"You are just in time," gasped the man in charge of the motor boat.

"Don't risk the flames, but pull away."

"Yes, there is nothing to be done in the way of putting out the fire,"

said Frank.

The man he spoke to was both worried and in pain. His face and hands were blistered from his efforts to shield his pa.s.sengers from the fire.

Just then a howl rang out. It proceeded from the fellow thirty feet away, bobbing up and down on the empty box. This brought the older woman to her senses.

"It is Peter!" she screamed. "Oh, save Peter!"

The paltry Peter began bellowing with deadly fear as the launch was headed away from him. Frank could not feel very charitable toward a fellow who, in the midst of peril, had left friends, probably relatives, to their fate. However, he started to change the course of the launch, when Pep, swinging one arm over the other in masterly progress like the fine swimmer he always had been, crossed the bow of the craft.

"I'll take care of him," shouted Pep to Frank, "and here's Randy in the skiff."

Frank saw Randy making for the spot, and as Pep grasped the side of the floating box the skiff came alongside.

"Hold on! Stop that other boat," blubbered the young fellow. "I want to go ash.o.r.e in a safe rig; I want to get to my aunt."

"What did you leave her for?" demanded Pep, firing up.

"Huh! Think I want to get drowned?" whimpered the other.

Pep helped the scared youth into the skiff, drew himself over its edge, and directed just one remark to the rescued lad.

"Say!" he observed, indignantly. "I'd just like to kick you."

CHAPTER III-SHORT OF FUNDS

Frank drove the motor launch sh.o.r.eward with accuracy and speed. The stout lady had shrieked and acted as if half mad until she had been a.s.sured that Peter was safe. She had to see with her own eyes that Peter had been pulled into the rowboat with Randy and Pep. Then she collapsed again.

While she lay limp and exhausted, the young lady with her mopped her head with a handkerchief and fanned her. The engineer of the motor boat had got near to Frank. He looked pale and distressed. He kept his eye fixed on the sinking motor boat for a time.

"That's the last of her," he remarked, with a sigh.

"Yes," responded Frank, "we couldn't do anything toward saving her."

"I should think not. I tell you, if you hadn't known your business I don't know what would have happened to us. Mrs. Carrington was entirely unmanageable, her companion can't swim, and of course I wouldn't leave them to perish."

"The stout lady is Mrs. Carrington, I suppose?" asked Frank.

"That's right."

"And Peter, I suppose, is the brave young man who jumped overboard with the float?"

"He is her nephew, and a precious kind of a relative he is!" said the motor boat man, and his face expressed anger and disgust. "He would smoke those nasty cigarettes of his and throw the stubs where he liked.

Honestly, I believe it was one of those that started the fire."

"He hasn't shown himself to be very valiant or courageous," commented Frank.

There was a great crowd at the beach near the sh.o.r.e end of the pier where the launch landed. The skiff holding Randy, Pep and their dripping and shivering companion glided to the same spot as an officer saw that the launch was secured. He stared down in an undecided way at the helpless Mrs. Carrington. Peter, safe and sound now, leaped aboard the launch with the a.s.surance of an admiral.

"Hey, officer," he hailed the man, "get a conveyance for the party as quick as you can."

"Suppose you do it yourself?" growled the motor boat man, looking as if he would like to give Peter a good thrashing.

"Me? In this rig? Oh, dear, no!" retorted the shocked Peter. "I've got five suits of clothes home. Really, I ought to send for one. Don't know what the people at Catalpa Terrace will say to see me coming home looking like a drowned rat, don't you know," and Peter grinned in a silly, self-important way.

"He makes me sick!" blurted out the motor boat man.

The young lady who was supporting Mrs. Carrington leaned toward Frank.

Her face expressed the respect and admiration she felt for their rescuer.

"We can never thank you enough for your prompt service," she said, in a voice that trembled a trifle from excitement.

"I am glad I was within call," replied Frank, modestly.

"Won't you kindly give me your name?" inquired the young lady. "I am Miss Porter, and I am companion to Mrs. Carrington. I know her ways so well, that I am sure the first thing she will want to know when she becomes herself again is the name of her brave rescuer."

"My name is Frank Durham," replied our hero. "My chums in the little boat are Randolph Powell and Pepperill Smith."

"So you live here at Seaside Park? Where can Mrs. Carrington send you word, for I am positive she will wish to see you?"

"We may stay here until to-morrow-I cannot tell," explained Frank. "If we do, I think we will be at the Beach Hotel."

The young lady had a small writing tablet with a tiny pencil attached, secured by a ribbon at her waist. She made some notations. Then she extended her hand and grasped Frank's with the fervency of a grateful and appreciative person. Then an auto cab drew up at the end of the pier, the officer summoned help, and Mrs. Carrington was lifted from the launch. Frank a.s.sisted Miss Porter, and Peter, apparently fancying himself an object of admiration to all the focussed eyes of the crowd, disappeared into the automobile.

"Hey!" yelled Pep after him, doubling his fists. "Thank you!"

The motor boat man grasped Frank's hand with honest thankfulness in his eyes.

"I shan't forget you very soon," he said with genuine feeling.

"Did the boat belong to you?" asked Frank.

"Yes, I own two motor boats here," explained the man, "and run them for just such parties as you see."

"The explosion will cause you some money loss."

"I hardly think so," answered the man. "Mrs. Carrington is a rich woman, they say, and she is quite liberal, too. I think she will do the right thing and not leave all the loss on a poor man like myself."