"Pretty fine," agreed the young actor. "Has she any speed?"

"Not much, I guess. It's an old sort of tub, but pretty steady in the water, Mr. Pertell said. That's what I want for taking pictures. It won't do to have her rolling and pitching. Well, let's go aboard, and see how they're coming on."

Russ had a permit to view the craft, and as he was expected to give some instructions regarding the building of the platform, the man in charge of the overhauling work welcomed the four young people.

The _Ajax_ was, as Russ had said, rather a tub, but it was a large, comfortable boat, and was capable of going on quite a cruise. There was a partially enclosed cabin, and many comforts and conveniences. But just for the present purpose, everything was being subordinated to the taking of moving pictures.

"I'm readjusting the motor," the head of the repair gang told Russ, "so she'll start and stop, as well as reverse easily and quickly. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"That's it, yes. You see I can't tell when I'll have to shift, to make allowances for what the actors and actresses will do. There's no telling about these moving picture people," and Russ gave Ruth and Alice, as well as Paul, a laughing look as though to indicate that they were very temperamental, and hard to get along with.

"Are these some of the actor folks?" asked the mechanic who was laboring over the motor.

"That's what they are, and good ones, too!" cried Russ.

"Gee! They don't look it!" was the frank remark, and the two girls broke into peals of laughter.

Paul and Russ showed Ruth and Alice over the big motorboat, and then leaving the three to their own devices for a while, the young camera operator went into details of the work with the head mechanic. Russ was told that the _Ajax_ would be ready in plenty of time for him. He expressed himself as satisfied with the progress made, though he made one or two slight changes in the platform, built on the forward deck of the craft, where he was to stand when he took the pictures of the shipwreck.

"Well, how about those sodas now?" asked Russ of his companions when he had finished. "There's a nice place a few blocks up, and it's about warm enough for ice cream."

"Couldn't we take just a look at the _Mary Ellen_ while we are here?"

asked Alice. "Isn't that she, over there?" and she pointed across the basin.

"You speak of that ship as if she were a person," objected Ruth.

"And so she is!" Alice exclaimed. "A ship is always a lady, isn't she, Paul?"

"She ought to try to be, at least," he laughed. "How about it, Russ?

Shall we take the girls over to the schooner?"

"Might as well, I guess. It won't take long, and it isn't far."

A short time later the four of them stood at the gangplank of the _Mary Ellen_. They saw no signs of any men on deck, but they were doubtless below, making the repairs, which must be nearly finished.

"Come on," said Russ, leading the way. "We'll go aboard."

As they stood on deck, looking about them, they saw no one, but the companionway was in plain sight, and they started toward it, intending to go down into the main cabin.

The place was rather dimly lighted, but when their eyes had become used to the gloom, they caught sight of a solitary figure in the forward end of the main compartment.

"It's Jack Jepson," whispered Alice to her companions. "We'll give him a surprise. Keep quiet now. His back is toward me and I'll tiptoe up behind him and put my hands over his eyes. I'll make him guess who it is. He'll think some British suffragette has taken him on that silly charge of mutiny," she went on.

"Be careful," admonished Ruth. "No pranks, Alice."

"This isn't a prank. Keep quiet now."

The old sailor was evidently not aware that visitors were in the cabin, for they had made little noise in descending the companion stairs, and what little they had caused was drowned by the distant noise of carpenters' hammers.

As Alice advanced, the others remaining back in the semi-darkness, they all heard Jack Jepson break into a sort of monologue. He was talking to himself, in fashion something like this.

"It ought to be hereabouts, if it's anywhere, and I'm sure it is. I can't be mistaken. They have cut her down, and made a lot of changes, but they can't fool me. I was suspicious when I first came aboard, and I'm more so every minute. I'm going to find out for sure, while I have the chance. Let me think now."

He leaned up against a bulkhead, while Alice glanced back at her friends in some surprise. What meant the words they had overheard? The old sailor seemed strangely excited, and he was pa.s.sing his hand over the paneling of the cabin as though in search of something long forgotten, or dimly remembered.

A moment later another step was heard in the apartment, and Captain Brisco entered. He started at the sight of Jepson, though the commander had not yet seen the four young people.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice. The old salt started back as though caught in some guilty act.

CHAPTER XIII

"ALL ABOARD!"

Ruth, Alice, Paul and Russ remained silent and unseen witnesses of the little scene being enacted before them. It was like some section taken from a moving picture drama, though they could not guess what the plot was, nor what the outcome would be.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Jepson?" asked Captain Brisco, and there was sarcasm in the t.i.tle he bestowed on his mate, for since he was third in command, having been given the post of second mate, the old salt was ent.i.tled to be called Mister.

"I was jest--jest lookin'--lookin'--" Jepson faltered.

"Well, you'd better look forward then," came, the harsh command.

"There's plenty to do there, if we're ever to start on this voyage, and of all the----"

At that moment Alice sneezed. She could not help it, and in trying to hold it back, she made more of a commotion than if she had let the sneeze come naturally.

At the sound Captain Brisco and Jack Jepson turned and stared toward the dimness that marked the companionway.

"Who's there?" called Captain Brisco, sharply.

"We just came aboard to see how matters were coming on," said Russ stepping forward and under a skylight.

"But we didn't expect to be welcomed with snuff," said Alice, as she sneezed again. This time Ruth joined her. There was an irritating odor noticeable in the cabin.

"I beg your pardon," Captain Brisco said, as the others stepped closer to Russ, so they could be discerned. "I didn't know who it was. I am glad to see you. That's a paint-remover you smell. It is irritating. I am very glad to see you."

But he did not say it at all as though he meant it. Alice said afterward she thought her sneeze had broken in on the captain's denunciation of the proposed sea voyage.

"It was just as though he were going to say it was the most foolish and nonsensical thing of which he had ever heard," Alice explained. "Oh, why _did_ I have to go and sneeze just then?"

"Did you want to hear what he would have said?" asked her sister.

"Yes, I did. I don't like Captain Brisco."

"You mustn't say such things," Ruth cautioned her. But this was some time later.

Just at present the commander of the _Mary Ellen_ was trying to make his unexpected guests feel a welcome he rather grudgingly extended.