A SIGNAL OF DISTRESS.
They made such fair speed that, as noon came along, they realized they
could reach the little city on the sound. Once or twice Jack had been
tempted to turn in to the shore, especially when he saw what looked to
be a very pretty plantation, with the house having a red roof, and
nestling in among many trees, for the idea had occurred to him that he
might just happen on some valuable information concerning the party
whom they sought.
But it ended in his determining that on the whole he had better curb
his impatience until reaching Beaufort. At the postoffice he might get
in touch with some one who knew.
When they pulled in they had eaten a little bite of cold stuff, as it
was not their intention to stop to cook anything.
Jack himself set off for the postoffice, to secure what mail awaited
them, and at the same time make certain inquiries.
"Can you tell me anything about a certain party named Van Arsdale
Spence?" he asked the postmaster, after receiving several letters.
The other looked at him closely.
"He used to live near here," he said, finally.
"Yes, we understood that, and I want to find him very much," Jack went
on.
"You passed his old home as you came here, and perhaps you noticed the
house in among the trees, the one with the red-tiled roof?"
"Why, of course we did!" Jack exclaimed, "and I was tempted to put in
there, to make inquiries, but changed my mind. Then we must turn back,
and go there?"
The postmaster shook his head.
"Wouldn't do any good, young man. Mr. Spence no longer lives there,"
he said.
"Do you happen to know where he could be found, sir? I have a very
important message to deliver to him, which I promised to hand over
while we were passing along this section of the coast."
To the surprise of Jack the official looked grave.
"The rules of the department are very strict, sir, and prevent me from
telling you where Mr. Spence gets his mail now." Then seeing Jack's
look of bitter disappointment, and partly relenting, he continued: "But
there's a party over yonder who knows just as well as I do, and is
under no restrictions either. A drink, or a quarter, would do the
business with Pete Smalling."
"Thank you; I'll make the try anyway," and Jack hurried across to where
he saw a rather disreputable citizen standing leaning against a fence,
chewing a straw.
"Excuse me, are you Pete Smalling?" he asked, as he came up.
The cracker looked him over, and then grinned. Evidently he recognized
that the other was a stranger in the community. Perhaps, too, he
scented two bits, and later on a happy time in his favorite tavern
taproom.
"Them's my name, Mistah; what kin I do foh yuh?" he remarked, with the
true Southern accent.
"I want to see a certain party named Van Arsdale Spence, and the
postmaster told me you would know and could direct me."
Jack managed in some way to slip a piece of silver into the hand of the
other. It had the result of making him talkative.
"He was right, stranger, I does happen tuh know thet same, an' kin take
yuh tuh whah Mistah Spence is aholin' out right now. Yuh see, it's tuh
the south o' hyah, quite a peart ways, p'raps half hour er more."
"Could you tell us exactly where?" demanded the boy.
"Wall, now, I reckon I knows, but she's thet hard tuh tell. Gut a
boat, Mistah, aint yuh?" Pete went on.
"Yes, we've got three power boats with us. Could you pilot us to where
Mr. Spence is to be found?" Jack went on, beginning to understand how
profitable it was to know a thing, and yet be quite unable to describe
its location.
"Cud I? Wall, nothin' is surer than thet same, suh; allers pervided
yuh made it wuth my time. I'm ginerally a busy man, yuh see, suh."
Jack thought he must be, as long as he had a dime in his pocket with
which to pay for the stuff he guzzled; but then that was no affair of
his right then; what he wanted was to find Spence.
"Would a dollar pay you for showing us?" Jack asked, with an air of
business that no doubt impressed the loafer.
"Jest consider me engaged, Mistah. Take me tuh yer boat; on'y its gut
tuh be understood that I'm tuh be fetched back heah again. If Spence
cain't bring me, yuh promise tuh do hit, do yuh?"
"Yes, I guess I'm safe in making that promise. Then come along with me
down to the water front. The sooner we start the better."
Jack went on, believing in the old maxim that causes one to strike
while the iron is hot.
"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
passing 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 shining 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
anticipated, some of the fellows on the shore 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 passed 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 shore and got
snagged on a stump or a rock. But we just can't pass them by and
pretend we don't see them. Listen, one is yelling."
"Help! we're wrecked! Come ashore 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 shore, 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!"