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FRANK MERRIWELL'S CRUISE
BY BURT L. STANDISH
AUTHOR OF "Frank Merriwell's Schooldays," "Frank Merriwell's Chums,"
"Frank Merriwell's Foes," "Frank Merriwell's Trip West," etc.
PHILADELPHIA
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER
604-8 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE
Copyright, 1898
By STREET & SMITH
Frank Merriwell's Cruise
FRANK MERRIWELL'S CRUISE.
CHAPTER I.
THE MEETING IN BOSTON.
"MR. JOHN DIAMOND, Lexington, Pa.: If you wish cruise in down East
waters, join me Monday next at American Hotel, Boston. Have
purchased yacht. Hodge and Browning will be in party. Great sport
anticipated.
"MERRIWELL."
Jack Diamond was reclining in a hammock suspended in the shade of an
artificial arbor when this message from Frank Merriwell was handed to
him by a boy. He tore open the envelope and read it, his eyes beginning
to sparkle and a flush coming to his handsome, aristocratic face.
"Just like him!" exclaimed Jack. "Before leaving Fardale he aroused our
curiosity about that part of the country, and now he proposes taking us
down there in his own yacht. Will I go? Will I? I wouldn't miss it for
the world!"
It had not taken him a minute to decide.
* * * * *
A cab rattled up to the front of the American Hotel, on Hanover Street,
Boston, and stopped. The door flew open, and out stepped a smartly
dressed young man, wearing russet shoes, a light-colored box coat and a
brown Alpine hat. He carried a handsome alligator-skin traveling bag in
his hand.
Paying cabbie without speaking a word, this youth turned and walked into
the hotel. As he entered, a colored boy hastened forward and relieved
him of his traveling bag. He stepped up to the clerk's desk and said:
"I am Jack Diamond, of Virginia, and I wish to see Mr. Frank Merriwell,
who is stopping here."
"Yes, sir," said the clerk, politely. "Mr. Merriwell left orders that
you be shown up immediately on your arrival. Twenty-three, show Mr.
Diamond to Mr. Merriwell's rooms."
"Right this way, sah," said the colored boy.
Jack followed the uniformed bell boy, who paused at the elevator shaft
and pressed a button. In a moment the elevator came gliding noiselessly
down, the door slid open, a lady and a gentleman stepped out and Diamond
stepped in.
"Third," said the bell boy, and then he turned and disappeared, while
the elevator man closed the door and sent the car gliding upward. He
stopped at the third floor, and, to Jack's surprise, the bell boy with
the grip was there, calmly awaiting his arrival.
Jack followed him to the door of a room at the front of the house. As
the boy lifted his hand to knock at the door, there was a burst of
laughter within, plainly heard, as the transom was open, and Frank
Merriwell's voice cried:
"Hans, if you could tell that story on the stage just as you told it
then you would make your fortune."
"Vot vos der madder mit me?" exclaimed the voice of Hans Dunnerwust,
Frank's German friend. "Dot nefer vos a funny stories! You don'd seen
vot I larft ad! Dot peen a bathetic sdory. I oxbected you vould took
mein handkersheft oudt und cried id indo, but you sed roundt und laugh
ad dot bathetic sdory like I vos a lot of monkeys. You don't like dot as
vell as I might!"
Then there was another burst of laughter, and the knock of the bell boy
was not heard.
"Never mind," said Diamond, taking his traveling bag and giving the boy
a dime; "I'll go right in."
He opened the door and stepped into the room.
Hodge, Browning, Merriwell and Dunnerwust were there. Bart was tilted
back in a chair, with his feet on the table, while lazy Bruce was half
sitting and half reclining on a sofa. Frank sat astride a chair, looking
over the back of it at Hans, who had stood in the middle of the room as
he told his "bathetic sdory."
"Hello, fellows!" cried the lad from Virginia, heartily.
There was a shout of welcome. Frank sprang forward quickly and grasped
Diamond's hand.
"Delighted, old man!" laughed Merry. "I was afraid you wouldn't come
till I received your telegram stating that you would be on hand. Any
trouble in persuading the mother?"
"Not much, though she said it did seem that I might remain at home a
while longer, and she told me to tell you that she is beginning to get
jealous of you, as I spend so much of my time during vacations with
you."
"How you vos, Shack?" said Hans, getting hold of Diamond's free hand,
the latter having dropped his traveling bag. "I vos a sight vor sore
eyes, ain'd you! You don'd knew how dickled you vos to seen me."
Hodge came forward and shook hands, expressing his pleasure, and, with
sundry grunts, Browning succeeded in getting upon his feet, saying as he
rose:
"Suppose I'll have to stand to shake, or you'll challenge me. You
Southerners are so confoundedly particular about courtesy and all that."
Jack smiled.
"I know you too well to resent it if you lay on your back and offered to
shake hands with me. In fact, it surprises me to discover you hadn't
rather fight a duel after you were obliged to get up than to get up when
not absolutely forced to do so."
"What baggage did you bring?" asked Merry.
"A trunk. It will be brought to the hotel here."
"There is no room for trunks on board the _White Wings_," said Frank.
"You'll have to store your trunk and such stuff as you do not absolutely
need till we get back here."
"The _White Wings_? Is that the name of your yacht?"
"Yes."
"Good name. How did you happen to buy a yacht?"
"Got a bargain of her. I came on to Boston with Miss Burrage, whose aunt
was waiting here for her. I met Jack Benjamin. You remember him?"
"Harvard man?"
"Yes."
"Plays football?"
"Yes."
"I remember him. His sister is a stunningly handsome girl."
"Huah!" grunted Browning. "That explains how you happen to remember
him."
"Well," Frank went on. "Benjamin turned out to be a fine fellow. Invited
me over to his house, treated me beautifully. He knows a lot of sporty
chaps. Among them was Walter Pringle, who owned this yacht. Pringle took
a party of us out for a cruise down the bay, and we had a grand time.
Went to Nantasket. Coming back Pringle said he had planned to cruise
down to the eastward this summer with a party of friends, but something
had come up that knocked out the arrangement. Then it was that I thought
of a talk we once had while at Fardale about making a cruise down along
the Maine coast, and I spoke of it. Said I'd like to own his yacht. Saw
Pringle looked a little queer. He stared at me a few moments, and then
asked what I would give for the _White Wings_. I questioned him some
about her, and then made an offer. He didn't take me up, but the next
day he came and told me the yacht was mine. I was astonished, for I
didn't offer much more than one-half what she is really worth. But he
said he must have the money without delay, as he was going to get out of
Boston in a hurry. I dispatched Prof. Scotch, and he wired me the
amount. I bought the boat, and now I hear Pringle has left for Seattle,
on his way to Alaska. His father is hot over it, for he didn't want his
son to go. Pringle had the fever, and he sold the yacht in a hurry to
raise money to go with. I have a bargain. We can make our cruise, and
then, when it is over, by looking about, I'll be able to get rid of the
_White Wings_ for more than I paid for her."
"Are you sure the transaction is all right?" asked Diamond.
"All right? How do you mean?"
"Why, strictly on the level. Pringle is not a minor?"
"No," grunted Browning; "but he has gone to be a miner."
"Here! here!" cried Frank, quickly; "that won't do. It's prohibited."
"It may be when we get on board the _White Wings_, but we're ashore now,
and you are not Capt. Merriwell yet."
"Pringle is twenty-one," said Frank, answering Diamond's question. "He
is all right."
"And he was sole owner of the yacht? He had the right to sell her?"
"Of course. Benjamin told me Pringle was strictly on the level."
"Well, you're always lucky!" exclaimed the lad from Virginia. "Now you
will get the fun of this cruise, and, when it is over, you'll be likely
to sell the yacht for enough so that you will come out ahead on the
whole deal, expenses included."
"I hope to," acknowledged Frank, laughing. "I considered it a snap, but
that was not why I wanted the boat. I wanted to make the cruise with my
friends. Here are five of us, and that is all the _White Wings_ will
carry with absolute comfort. There is plenty of room for us. We'll make
a jolly cruise of it, fellows, and I don't believe we'll ever regret
going. I have the boat stocked with provisions, and some Jew tailors up
by Scollay Square are at work on uniforms for four of us. We'll go out
right away, Jack, and you shall be measured for yours. Come on."