The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf Part 30

Noting the look of surprise on the little fellow's brown face, and realizing that he was totally ignorant in connection with what his words meant, Frank proceeded to tell how the hotel in Centerville was burned, and what a part Jerry and himself had had in the rescue of the balloonist, who had taken a sleeping powder, and lay in his room, unconscious of the tumult and peril.

Jerry meanwhile was making as good use of the marine gla.s.ses as he knew how.

"See anything that looks like the wreckage of a balloon on the water?"

asked Frank, as he swept the horizon with his naked eye, but in vain.

"Not a beastly thing," returned the other, in a disappointed tone.

"Oh, I'm afraid we've come in the wrong direction," sighed tender-hearted Will, shaking his head dubiously; "and it's just terrible to think that those poor chaps may be drowning right now, and our little boat so near at hand!"

"Tell me about that, will you? There he goes as usual, making us feel like murderers or something, when we only want a chance to get in our fine rescuing act. Stop him talking that way, Frank, won't you?" pleaded Bluff, who had emptied all the sand out of the bag dropped by the drifting balloonists, and declared he meant to hang the same up in his den at home as a memento of the wonderful incident.

Frank stood up to see the better.

Carefully he scanned the horizon, beginning at the furthest possible quarter toward the south, and ranging to one equally improbable northward.

And everywhere it seemed to be the same dead level line, with not a break that gave signs of promise.

"And the strange thing about it all is that there doesn't seem to be a solitary vessel, big or little, in sight anywhere. It would be hard at any other time to find the gulf around here so utterly forsaken," he remarked, beginning to feel discouraged himself.

"It certainly looks as though we had the field to ourselves," remarked Bluff; "here we've come some miles from sh.o.r.e, which is getting 'hull-down,' as the sailors say, in the distance, and yet not a peep of the lost balloonists. How much further ought we go, Frank?"

"Just as long as there seems to be the slightest chance of our striking those we're looking for, or we can see sh.o.r.e with the gla.s.ses. I, for one, would never be satisfied to give up, and then later on feel that we might have found them if we'd only kept out another mile or two."

"My sentiments, exactly," declared Will, who possessed a tender heart, as his chums knew from experience.

So the time crept on.

Frank was bending above the motor, but all the while he kept one eye over his shoulder on the bow of the boat where his chum stood, still sweeping the sea ahead with the marine gla.s.ses.

In fact, every one aboard seemed to have his gaze focussed on Jerry by this time, as though he might be the one to decide whether the hunt had better be abandoned right then and there, or kept up still longer.

And Frank almost held his breath awaiting the verdict.

Suddenly he saw Jerry start, and screw the gla.s.ses more eagerly to his eyes, as he craned his neck to see the better. With the increasing wind the waves had commenced to rise a little, consequently any floating object might at times be difficult to discern.

"I had a glimpse of something then, fellows! But, after all, it might have been another bunch of old pelicans!" he exclaimed.

"Not that. Pelicans would not be so far out. They hug pretty close to the sh.o.r.e, where the water is more shallow, and the fish come in to feed.

Still, it may have been the fin of a shark cutting the water like that one--" started Frank, when Jerry interrupted him:

"There it is again! As sure as you live, I believe it's a man clinging to some sort of wreckage! Here, take the gla.s.ses, Frank! Right over there, dead ahead! Now be ready! There! See?"

"It _is_ a man! Yes--two of them! Fellows, we are in time!" cried Frank.

"Hurrah!" the others shouted in chorus.

And the breeze, coming off sh.o.r.e, must have carried that volume of cheering sound to the ears of the almost despairing balloonists as they clung there to the wreck of their disabled air craft, possibly arranged to float for a time if it dropped into the sea.

"Yes. There! I can see one of them waving his hand! Give the poor chaps another shout, boys! This is great luck for us!" exclaimed Frank, and his own st.u.r.dy voice helped to swell the sound that rolled over the water.

If it was a happy moment for the rescuers, imagine the feelings of the two who clung there, expecting that every minute might see them without any support, as the waterlogged balloon sank under them!

Fast though the motor-boat was shooting through the waves, she seemed to fairly crawl, such was the impatience of the young voyagers.

So they swept alongside the floating balloonists. When Professor Smythe discovered the ident.i.ty of those who were coming to his aid his astonishment knew no bounds. It was the most remarkable coincidence he could remember meeting with in an adventurous career extending over many years.

"Was that your camp we pa.s.sed over, a little while back?" he asked, as, having been helped aboard, and some instruments being pa.s.sed up by his a.s.sistant, he helped the latter to crawl over the gunwale of the motor-boat.

"Just what it was," laughed Frank, "and you came near wrecking us, too.

The sand bag struck the tent, and carried it down in a heap."

"Incredible! And yet that very fact goes to prove my a.s.sertion that in war time dynamite could be easily dropped into a fortress by means of a dirigible balloon, or an aeroplane. That was a happy thought of mine to send a message. Only I hope none of you brave boys received any injury!" cried the professor.

"Luckily not. But what is to be done with this wreckage?" asked Frank.

"Nothing. It will sink presently. We have secured all our valuable instruments and records. I'm only too happy over escaping from a watery grave. Simms and myself were making up our minds that our time had come when you hove in sight."

"We are heading for Cedar Keys, but in no hurry to get there, professor.

What would you like us to do for you?" asked Frank presently, after they had given both men blankets to throw about their shoulders, for the air was "nippy."

"There is smoke on the horizon, to the west I believe it must be a steamer bound for Tampa. Do you think it would be possible to intercept her and put us aboard?" asked the scientist eagerly.

Frank took a look at the weather.

"We'll make a try, anyhow. But to do so we must head straight out, for she will go miles to the south of us," he said.

They sped on for an hour. The land was dim in the distance. It thrilled them to know they were like a speck out in the midst of the great Gulf of Mexico. By now the coast steamer was in plain view, and signals were made for her to stop.

When the captain learned who the two men were, and that he could further the work of the government, he gladly took them aboard; and the last the boys saw of the aeronauts was their waving hats as the steamer went on her way.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE "NORTHER"

"Is it back to the sh.o.r.e now, Frank?"

"If we are wise we'll lose no time in heading that way," was the quick response.

"What's the matter? Is there anything wrong?" demanded Jerry, taking the alarm immediately from his chum's manner.

"I think we are in for another little experience. If you notice, there are clouds along the horizon. I imagine our long-delayed norther is about to swoop down on us before long."

"Talk to me about the tough luck of that, will you! Of all times, that it should pick out this to tackle us!" exclaimed Jerry.