CHAPTER XXX

JESSICA’S FATHER--CONCLUSION

“The scoundrels tried to change the light and wreck a steamer coming up the coast,” replied Mr. Hardack. “If it hadn’t been for the boys here they would have succeeded.”

“If it hadn’t been for Jess we could have done nothing,” put in Jerry. “They had us locked up.”

“Let’s have the whole yarn,” suggested Sam.

Ned related what he had heard of the plot that night he had hidden in the _Dartaway_, and told how he and the boys on reaching the lighthouse had been left in charge with the new assistant while Mr. Hardack went to see his sick sister.

“And that message was all a fake,” said the keeper. “My sister wasn’t sick at all. I couldn’t find out who sent it, but I thought something was wrong, and I hurried back. On the way I was stopped by two men who wanted to pick a quarrel with me. They tried to take me off to a lonely hut, but I broke away and came on through the storm. You can imagine my feelings when I got here and saw the light flashing wrong.”

Then the boys told the rest of the tale, including the successful efforts of Jess to burn the lock from the door.

“But we haven’t heard how she happened to arrive at just the right time,” said Bob. “Call her.”

The girl came into the kitchen where they all were, the two prisoners having been placed in the storeroom.

“What happened to you, Jess?” asked her uncle.

“I jumped overboard and swam ashore,” said the girl.

“You jumped overboard?”

“Yes, that Nixon fellow took me for a ride in his boat. Then the engine got out of order, or he pretended it did, and we couldn’t get back. I wanted him to signal to some other boat but he wouldn’t. Then I got mad. He kept me out there quite a way from shore, saying all the while the engine would soon be fixed. But when I saw him taking some screws out I knew he wasn’t trying to fix the machinery, but was playing a trick to detain me. Then I jumped into the water and swam. I didn’t have much trouble. I’m a good swimmer, and it wasn’t so very far.”

“You’re a brave girl!” exclaimed Sam warmly, and Jess tried to run away again, but they would not let her.

The police whom Bob had telephoned for soon arrived, and took charge of the two men. They were eventually sent to prison for long terms.

Search was made for the others of the gang, but they, including Bill Berry, had escaped in the sloop. As for Noddy Nixon, he left the summer resort that night, disappearing soon after he brought in his boat from which Jess had escaped. At the hut near the cove, later, among Bill’s belongings, was found the diamond ring and the case of specimen mosquitoes stolen from Uriah Snodgrass.

“Well, this will delight the professor!” cried Jerry, when he heard of the find. “I’ll wager he’ll think more of the mosquitoes than of the diamond ring.” It may be added that the professor was delighted over the recovery of his property and when he heard of what the boys had accomplished he praised them highly.

It was learned afterward that Noddy had no idea of the serious plot the men had planned. Bill Berry had enlisted the youth’s aid in getting Jess out of the way, on the pretense that only a harmless trick was to be played on the keeper. Noddy’s previous acquaintance with the girl made this easy. But Noddy, after Jess left him so suddenly, thought it best to make himself scarce. Bill, it seems, had written to him early in the season to come to the summer resort near the lighthouse.

It was the next afternoon when the boys were again on a visit to the lighthouse that they learned how near the steamer had been to the dangerous rocks. Some men of the life saving station had seen her approach, and then veer out again suddenly as the light was changed.

“I declare I don’t know how to thank you boys,” said Mr. Hardack. “You certainly are wonders.”

“Jess had us all beaten,” spoke Ned, wondering where she was.

“Oh, yes, poor Jessica. I wish I could help her out of her trouble as she and you helped me.”

“What trouble?” asked Ned.

“Didn’t I ever tell you? I started to several times, but it must have slipped my mind. Her father has been missing for several months, and I’ve not been able to locate him. He’s my only brother, quite an old man, with white hair, whiter than mine.”

The boys looked at each other. They all had the same thought,--of the man in the railroad wreck.

“He was a miner out west,” Mr. Hardack went on. “He went there several years ago and left his daughter with me, because it was a wild country he was in. I got word a few months ago that he had started east, having made quite some money. He was to come here but he never arrived. We’ve been waiting for him since, and Jess is quite worried. I wrote to the persons who used to know him, but they said he had left the mining camp, and they did not know where he was. I wish I could locate him.”

Ned felt a lump coming up in his throat. The other lads seemed strangely affected. It was Jerry who spoke first.

“Mr. Hardack,” he said. “I don’t want to raise any false hopes, but I think we can put you on the track of Jessica’s father.”

“Where is he? Tell me! Oh, I must go to him if he is in trouble!”

“If he is the man I think him to be, he is in the hospital at Cresville. We saved a man from a railroad wreck, who, in his delirium, murmured something about ‘Jess’ and the ‘great light.’ I think he must have meant your niece, and the ‘great light’ referred to the lighthouse.”

“Oh, I only hope so!” exclaimed Mr. Hardack. “The loss of her father has almost broken Jessica’s heart. She is in mourning for her dead mother. How can we find out if the man of the wreck is my brother?”

“I can telephone to Dr. Bounce,” replied Jerry. “The man may have recovered by now.”

It took some time to get the long-distance connection on the telephone from the lighthouse to Dr. Bounce. While it was being made Jess came into the room.

“Jess--dear--Jessica,” stammered her uncle. “Would you mind getting dinner?” She left the room, a little surprised at the serious looks on the faces of the boys and her uncle. “I didn’t want her to hear until we know if it’s true,” said the uncle in a whisper.

At last Jerry was able to converse with Dr. Bounce. The boy’s voice trembled as he inquired about the man of the wreck. The others could only hear one side of the conversation, but they guessed the rest.

“You say he’s getting better, doctor? That’s good. Has he been able to give his name? He has? What is it? Tell me quick! A lot depends on it! Pack? Oh! Hardack! Are you sure? Walter Hardack!”

“It’s him! It’s him! That’s my brother’s name!” exclaimed the keeper, jumping up and down in his excitement. “Oh! Jess! Your father’s found! The boys did it! Oh! Jess! Praise the good Lord!”

Jess came running into the room, wondering what was up. She looked at her uncle. There were tears in the old man’s eyes.

“Your father’s found! Your father’s found!” was all he could say, as he hugged the now weeping girl to him.

“Come on,” said Ned softly. “We can return later.” And the chums withdrew.

Mr. Hardack soon called them back, and made them tell every detail of the wreck. They surmised that Jessica’s father had been on his way to the lighthouse when he was injured. His appeal to the boys to find his daughter had been no more than the raving of delirium, caused by the injury to his head, but it had worked itself out in an unexpected way.

The next day, with Ned as her guide, Jess started for Cresville, and a few hours later was clasped in her father’s arms. He had come successfully through a serious operation and was now on the road to recovery.

“Well,” remarked Jerry to Bob, when Ned had gone away, “we certainly had plenty of excitement the last few days. Ned is right in it to the last. Guess Jessica likes him. Well, she’s a mighty nice girl.”

“Right you are,” replied Bob. “Say, it wasn’t any mistake to come here for a vacation. I hope we will have as much fun next year.”

“I hope so,” Jerry added. “I wonder if Ned will come back for the rest of the season?”

“Bet he’ll stay in Cresville now that Jess is there.”

“Well the summer is almost over,” said Bob a little sorrowfully. “Of course we can’t expect to foil a gang of wreckers again, but I hope there’ll be something just as lively.”

There was, and the boys had what they considered even better fun than centred around the lighthouse. Their further doings will be told of in the next volume, to be called, “The Motor Boys in Strange Waters; or, Lost in a Floating Forest.”

“Come on,” said Bob, after a pause. “Let’s go out in the boat for a spin. It’s a fine day.”

“A little lonesome without Ned, though.”

“Well, we’ll see him again, soon.”

They went down to the dock, where they found Salt Water Sam gazing contemplatively into the water. He was softly singing to himself:

“The Mary Jane, she was a ship As fine as one could wish. I used to sail the seas in her, And sometimes I would fish. One day when I was sailing I chanced to catch a shark. I put him on exhibit In a little seaside park!”

“Well, well, boys, I didn’t hear you coming,” the sailor went on. “I was just thinking of the fun we had.”

“Come on for a sail,” invited Jerry.

Then the two boys and the old man got into the _Dartaway_ and put off toward the mouth of the harbor. And here, for a while, we will take leave of them.

THE END

THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES

By _Clarence Young_

_12mo. illustrated_

_Price per volume, 50 cents._

_Postage, extra, 10 cents._

_Bright up-to-date stories, full of information as well as of adventure. Read the first volume and you will want all the others written by Mr. Young._

1. THE MOTOR BOYS _or Chums through Thick and Thin_

2. THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND _or A Long Trip for Fun and Fortune_

3. THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO _or The Secret of the Buried City_

4. THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS _or The Hermit of Lost Lake_

5. THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT _or The Cruise of the Dartaway_

6. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC _or The Mystery of the Lighthouse_

7. THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS _or Lost in a Floating Forest_

8. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC _or The Young Derelict Hunters_

9. THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS _or A Trip for Fame and Fortune_

10. THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES _or A Mystery of the Air_

11. THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN _or A Marvelous Rescue in Mid-Air_

12. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING _or Seeking the Airship Treasure_

CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York

Transcriber’s Notes:

--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in bold by “equal” signs (=bold=).

--Printer, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.

--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.

--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Motor Boys on the Atlantic, by Clarence Young