CHAPTER XII

BOUND FOR THE OCEAN LANES

The captain recognized the Radio Boys at once, and he sprang quickly to his feet, his face quite as full of surprise and delight at the unexpected meeting as their own.

“Upon my word!” he ejaculated, as he shook hands with them warmly one after the other. “This is a bit of good luck I never dreamed of! I had been hoping to meet you again, but I had no idea our meeting would come about in any such way as this. So you are the four boys that our boat picked up last night! Sit right down and tell me all about it.”

The ensign had saluted and vanished, much impressed by the warmth of the reception that had been extended to the castaways by the captain.

The boys seated themselves, still somewhat in a daze, but glad beyond measure that fate had thrown them into the hands of so staunch a friend. In a few words, Bob, acting as spokesman for the group, narrated the particulars of the collision and the sinking of their steamer.

“And you’ll never know, Captain, how good it was to see that searchlight of yours shining through the fog on our little boat,” he said, in conclusion. “What with the wet, the cold, and the worry, we were about all in.”

“I don’t wonder,” replied the captain, sympathetically. “You were in a plight calculated to tax the strength and courage of experienced sailors. If a storm had come up, it would have been a matter of touch and go, and you might not have been rescued at all. I’m mighty glad that our vessel was in range of your S. O. S.”

“You can’t be any more glad than we are,” responded Joe. “We’d rather find ourselves on your boat than on any other in the world.”

“Even if it is carrying you farther and farther from your friends and home with every hour that passes?” asked the captain, with a smile.

“Even so,” came from Bob. “Because they know, or will know soon, that everybody on board was rescued, and that will relieve their worry.”

A troubled look came into the captain’s face.

“I’m not so sure about everybody,” he said slowly. “I was, last night, or of course we would have stayed in the vicinity. But there was some mix-up in the reports. We were told at first that six boats had left the steamer, and when we learned that, counting your party, six boatloads had been picked up, we concluded that our work was done. But a wireless that reached me a little while ago says that there were seven boats, and the seventh had not yet been accounted for.”

A look of consternation came into the faces of the boys.

“I wonder if Mr. Strong could have been in the missing boat,” said Bob, in a voice that shook a little.

“It is possible, of course,” replied the captain. “The names of the rescued have not been checked up fully yet. I have radioed to Washington, offering to return to the scene of the collision, but I have been told that other Government vessels in the vicinity will keep up the search. Likely enough, your friend is among the rescued. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything definite to tell. Of course, I’ll report your safety right away, and the news will be sent to your people immediately. That will relieve their anxiety. Later I’ll see that you have all facilities for sending your own personal messages.”

“Thanks, very much,” replied Bob. “We’d like to do that as soon as possible.”

“And after that?” pursued Captain Springer, inquiringly.

“After that,” answered Bob, “we’ll do exactly as you say.”

“I suppose I can soon speak some steamer homeward bound and put you on board,” said the captain, half as though speaking to himself.

There was such a comical look of disappointment on the faces of the Radio Boys that the captain laughed aloud.

“Doesn’t seem to appeal to you very much,” he remarked, as he looked, with a twinkle in his eyes, at the various members of the group.

“Can’t say that it does,” replied Herb.

“You see, Captain,” said Joe, “we never had a chance of this kind before, and we were beginning to feel as if we were in for a glorious adventure.”

“And if so soon you’re to be done for, You wonder what you were begun for,”

said the captain, with a smile.

“That hits it exactly,” confessed Jimmy.

“Of course, Captain,” said Bob, “we don’t want to presume on your kindness or tax your hospitality too much——”

“Don’t worry about that,” interrupted the captain. “I don’t forget and I never shall that I owe my life to the courage and presence of mind of you boys, and I’m only too glad to be able to repay, in what slight degree I may, the debt I owe you. I shall be delighted to have you stay on board the ship as my guests until our voyage is over and we return again to Halifax. That is, of course, if your folks consent.”

“That will be dandy!” exclaimed Jimmy delightedly, and his feeling was mirrored on the faces of his companions.

“We’ll get in touch with our fathers and mothers as soon as we may, and I’m sure they’ll consent,” added Bob.

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t,” put in Joe. “It’s vacation time anyway, so that it won’t interfere with our school work.”

“At what time does your school term begin?” asked the captain.

“In about six weeks,” answered Herb.

“That will be just about the term of our voyage,” observed Captain Springer. “At the end of that time, we’ll be relieved by another vessel, and return to Halifax for fuel and supplies. So that just fits in nicely. By the way, do you boys know just where we are bound and what line of work this vessel is doing?”

“No one has told us,” replied Bob. “But remembering what you told us the last time you were at my home, I suppose your work is in the iceberg patrol.”

“Just that,” agreed the captain. “I was appointed to the command of this vessel shortly after I left Clintonia, and I assumed my duties at once.”

“The iceberg patrol!” exclaimed Joe, jubilantly. “Don’t you remember, fellows, how we were wishing, after the captain left Clintonia, that we could have a fling at that?”

“And how it seemed as though we might almost as well wish for the moon!” chimed in Jimmy.

“And here we are right in the thick of it. I hope I don’t wake up,” cried Herb.

“You’re not dreaming,” the captain assured them with a smile. “But don’t think for a moment that it’s going to be all peaches and cream. We’re not on a holiday jaunt, but on the hardest kind of service that has a good deal of danger attached to it.”

“We wouldn’t give a fig for it if it hadn’t,” asserted Bob, stoutly.

“Spoken as I like to hear things spoken,” declared the captain. “Well, then, we’ll consider it settled, always supposing that your parents consent.”

“We don’t want to loaf,” said Bob. “We’ll be only too glad to do anything you have for us to do. We don’t know much about boats, but we’re willing to learn.”

“Well,” said the captain contemplatively, “I don’t want to put my guests to work, and we’re not at all shorthanded. But I understand and appreciate your spirit, and I’ll see that you have something to occupy your hands and mind. I shouldn’t wonder if you could help out our radio operators once in a while, if you like. You boys are all radio fans, and it would be right in your line.”

“Suits us right down to the ground!” exclaimed Bob enthusiastically.

“We’ll just eat that up,” declared Joe.

“Lead us to it,” urged Jimmy.

“Hits us where we live,” affirmed Herb.

“All in good time,” rejoined the captain, rising. “Now come out with me on deck and I’ll introduce you to my officers. They’re a fine lot of men. You’ve already met Ensign Porter, but I want you to meet the others.”

They followed the captain to where the first officer was standing.

“Lieutenant Milton,” said the captain, “I want you to meet these young men that we brought aboard from the small boat last night. I didn’t know until a short time ago that they were the same who saved my life some time ago.”

“When you were caught in that overturned auto?” asked the lieutenant, with quickened interest, as he acknowledged the introduction.

“The same,” replied the captain. “And boys don’t come any finer! They’ll go with us on this trip, and they’re to have the run of the ship.”

They talked for a few moments and were about to pass on, when the young ensign, Porter, came up hurriedly and saluted.

“Vessel lying to leeward, Captain,” he said, as he handed over a pair of glasses. “Low in the water and seems to be abandoned.”

The captain seized the glasses and focused them on what seemed to the boys a little speck, scarcely visible in the distance.