Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast; or, Through Storm and Stress to Florida

"And who'd want a finer cushion than our Nick?" remarked Herb.

"Nature knew what was needed, when he was padded and filled out so well," Josh managed to work in with; "and if ever I needed a bumper, I'd pick him out first thing."

"Get out!" snapped Nick; but all the same he grinned as though complimented.

On the following morning, then, they made an early start, for there was considerable of a distance to be covered ere they could reach the hospitable docks of Charleston by the sea.

Jack knew that their supply of gas was growing alarmingly low. Indeed, George had already been obliged to borrow from the Comfort, as that craft had the largest reservoir and could spare a little.

"It's going to be a close shave to get us there," he remarked, as they started.

"What if my tank goes empty again?" demanded George.

"I've been thinking of that," said Jack. "As a last resort then, we'll make camp, empty all we've got into one tank, and that boat can go after a new supply."

"That's the ticket!" cried Josh.

"It takes Jack to solve these maddening puzzles!" declared Nick, with a look of affection in the direction of the chum who never failed them.

"But still, I have hopes we'll all pull through," Jack continued, encouragingly.

"How'd it be for one of the boats to do the towing act?" suggested Herb.

"And that would mean the Comfort, because she's built more on the lines of a tow boat than either of the others," remarked George. "I enter a kick against anything of the kind. It's bad enough to be humiliated that way when a fellow's motor goes back on him; but in calm weather, and with the engine in the pink of condition, it just can't be thought of for a minute."

"Hey! what you trying to do again; throw me overboard?" demanded Nick, aggressively, as he floundered about when the Wireless came to a sudden and totally unexpected stop, just as George ceased speaking.

"His engine broke down again, that's what!" jeered Josh.

"Is that a fact, George?" asked Jack, provoked at the idea of delay.

"Oh! not quite so bad as that," replied George, peevishly; "I think I know what happened. I forgot something, that's all. Perhaps I can have it fixed in three shakes of a lamb's tail. You go on, and I'll catch up easy enough."

"Don't you dare to do it, fellows!" cried Nick. "That might mean for us to be marooned here a whole day, yes, mebbe a week. And most of the grub is aboard that old Comfort, you see."

"We'll wait a while and see how it comes out," remarked Jack. "Do you need any help, George?"

"Who, me? Not in the least. I tell you, I know what's ailing, and I'll get it to going all right in five minutes," George answered, stiffly, for the many freaks of his engine gave him unhappy spells; as Josh once declared, it was like a certain girl he knew, in that "when it was good, it was very, very good; and when it was bad, it was hor-rid!"

However, for once George proved to be a truthful prophet. By the time those five minutes were up, he had succeeded in coaxing the refractory motor to behave itself; and suddenly the Wireless shot off amid a rattling volley of explosions that told full well how her muffler was cut out.

George continued on at a pace that took him far ahead of the rest. Then they saw him draw up and wait, as though, having demonstrated the ability of his motor to do good work, caution again dictated that he keep in touch with the supply boat and the pilot craft.

That day was the easiest of the week. They had an open passage nearly all the way to the bay, the weather was all that could be asked; and the rest did seem so fine after so much hard labor with push poles.

"If this sort of thing would only keep up," Nick remarked, as they landed on a sandspit to make a fire and have a pot of hot coffee at noon, in order to cheer things up, "I'd have some hope of getting back to my former condition again."

"Well, if that means taking up any more room aboard my boat," grunted George, "I hope you won't do it. Things are getting to a pass now that I'm feeling squeezed half the time. Some day we hope you're going to have that ferryboat made to order, as you've been threatening. Say, it'll just be a jim dandy, I guess."

"It's going to combine speed with comfort," declared Nick, unblushingly. "While it'll beat Herb's tub all hollow for room, at the same time it can make rings around the poor old Wireless. Just you wait; I've got her all mapped out in my head, and some day I'll surprise the bunch."

The afternoon run took them in good time to where the sound they were following broke into Charleston Bay.

"There's the ruins of old Fort Sumter!" cried Nick, as they saw the lovely panorama spread out in front of them.

"And Port Moultrie, too! Gee! to think that we'd ever get to set eyes on the places we used to read so much about in history," said Josh, staring around.

"Well," laughed Jack, "to my mind right now, the best of it is that yonder lies Charleston, where we can lay in a new supply of gas; because I'm expecting to find any minute that my well has gone dry. It's an awful thing to have a thirsty engine and nothing to feed it. But perhaps I'll pull through by making every drop tell."

It proved to be better than that, for there was not the slightest trouble experienced in making the run up the bay to the city.

Skirting the shore, Jack kept his eyes on the alert for some shipyard, knowing that such a place would better accommodate the three power boats than any other harbor.

It happened that Jimmy's sharp eyes caught the first sign of a boat builder's establishment, and presently the three little craft that had come through such a checkered experience with credit, were secured to landings within the enclosed space of the shipyard.

Here it was determined to remain for a couple of days, as there were a number of things to be done besides replenishing their stock of fuel and food.

All of the boys wanted to see the city, about which, with its beauties, they had heard considerable.

"From here on to Jacksonville we ought to have it fairly easy," Jack explained to the rest. "There's an inside route taken by steamers to Savannah, and from that Georgia city clear to Fernandina in Florida. Then we will have to go out for just a little run; after which we enter the broad mouth of the St. Johns."

"And we'll really be in Florida then, will we?" asked Nick. "My goodness; sometimes, when we were sticking in those mud creeks, it seemed to me that Florida must be just six thousand miles away. And we're going to make it after all? Well, that's what comes of push and grit. You fellers would have laid down long ago, only for my keeping everlastingly at it. But you're improving, I admit that; and I've got hopes that in time you'll do me credit."

Of course they were quite used to Nick's method of joshing, and took all this in good part. Had it been any one else he might have been suspected of egotism; but they all knew Nick, and what an effort it was to get him to do anything requiring an effort; so that the joke was not lost.

"When you take to prodding us to do things, water is going to run up-hill," was George's way of heading him off.

"Well, fellows, there have been a few things Nick knows how to do better than the rest of the bunch, you must admit that," Jack remarked, dryly.

"'Course we do," grinned Josh. "F'r instance, he can beat any bullfrog I ever set eyes on, makin' a jump from a boat into the water."

"And sure, he can give the rist of us points on how to balance a boat by partin' his hair exactly in the meddle," Jimmy spoke up.

"And there ain't a living soul in the same class with Nick when it comes to stowing away grub. I've often sat and admired him at it, until I just groaned in despair of ever being able to copy after him. I ain't built the right way, boys, you see. My pockets won't stretch far enough."

"Oh! keep it going, if it pleases you, boys," the good natured Nick observed; "it don't hurt me any more'n water falling on a duck's back. Josh as much as admits that he's just consumed by envy because he can't enjoy his food like I do. But I'm used to being knocked around like a football. George here has rolled all over me forty times, I guess, since we've been shipmates. I'm beginning to get calloused around my elbows and knees. By the time this cruise is finished I'll be ready to hire out in a side show as the only and original human punching bag."

The stay in Charleston was covered in two days, during which they managed to get around pretty well, and see all that was worth while. Besides, they had laid in all necessary stores, and the gas supply was looked after.

On the third morning the Motor Boat Club set out along the wide Stone River, which soon narrowed, as all these southern rivers have a habit of doing, a short distance from its mouth. Then, by degrees, they passed through a tortuous channel, that, being safely navigated, took them in turn to another river, called the Wadmelaw.

Passing the lower stretches of the swift running Edisto River, they managed to make the northern shore of St. Helena Sound by the middle of the afternoon; and an hour later determined to camp there in the open, rather than enter the tortuous watercourses leading to Beaufort.

An early start on the following day gave them a chance to pass Beaufort before ten o'clock, and then head for distant Savannah.

The course was intricate; but Jack studied his chart closely; and besides, they discovered that the channel was located by means of targets which doubtless had been placed there by the steamboat company, so that with any exercise of care they had little excuse for going astray.

And as the last of Calibogue Sound was left behind they managed to reach the wide Savannah River, just as the sun was sinking in the west.