The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf | Page 2

long-cherished plan of his. He purchased a beautiful little motor-boat, about twenty-seven feet long, and carrying a twelve horse-power engine. He says she can make twelve miles an hour if pushed, but being beamy she is as steady as a church floor and mighty comfortable; just the kind of a craft for cruising along a river or the bays of a coast."
Jerry groaned.
"You're killing me by inches! To tell us all this and then ask us to settle on going up there into the woods for a two-weeks' spin! It's a crime, that's what!" he exclaimed.
"Wait!" said Frank, mysteriously; and the others immediately drew a bit closer, almost holding their very breath with eagerness and anticipation.
"He had this boat taken to a Southern town on the railroad, where a navigable river flows through Northern Florida into the Gulf. Here he also shipped all his provisions, intending to make a start just before Christmas, when the unexpected happened. He had an accident--broke through the ice when skating, came near being drowned, and has been laid up with pneumonia ever since!"
"Poor chap! That's awful!" declared Bluff.
"But that isn't the worst by any means, from our standpoint, boys. His doctor has strictly forbidden him to take that voyage this winter and is sending him off with his tutor to some baths in Southern Europe or some old place where he may recover his strength."
The three boys groaned in concert.
"A rough deal all around," said Jerry.
"What a disappointment it must have been, and he with his heart set on the trip!" exclaimed Will.
"But they tell us that 'it's a poor wind that blows nobody good.' So he has written me this letter, making a proposal," went on Frank, calmly.
"What!" shouted Jerry, clutching the arm of his chum.
"Oh! he hates to leave his fine, dandy little launch there at that town, where there is really no accommodation for her, and would like to have some one take her over the course to Cedar Keys, Florida, to put her up with a boat builder he knows. And so he wrote to me," continued Frank.
"Do you mean he has asked you to go down there and take that boat, just as he intended doing?" gasped Bluff.
"Yes, only that instead of taking two months loitering along I could do the job in ten days, perhaps," was the answer.
"Oh! what a lucky dog you are," sighed Will; "think of the innumerable chances for taking magnificent snapshots along the way."
"Hold on. I didn't tell you that in his letter he says particularly, 'you and those bully good chums of yours, the whole three--plenty of sleeping accommodations for the lot aboard!'" cried Frank, with a smile.
Then there was a scene! Jerry gripped Bluff, and gave him a hug a bear might have envied, while Will was shaking Frank's hand as though it were a pump handle.
"Glorious!"
"The finest ever!"
"It beats the Dutch how Frank runs into snaps!"
This last, of course, from Jerry, who was taking his turn now at squeezing the hand of his chum.
"But, I'm afraid, fellows, that we won't ever get the consent of our parents," sighed Will. "My mother would hate to have me go so far away. You know she only has my twin sister Violet and myself. Oh! it's sure too good to be true."
"Now don't cross a river until you come to it, fellows. To tell you the truth, that part of the programme has already been attended to. My father and myself have been the rounds unbeknown to any of you, and got the consent of Will's mother, as well as the parents of Bluff and Jerry. It's a settled thing, boys!"
They sat there and stared at each other. Evidently none of them could fully grasp the wonderful proposition entirely. They thought they must be dreaming.
"Please don't wake me up; this is too bang-up for anything," said Will.
"Frank, your equal never existed. Talk to me about your chums, no fellows ever had such a boss comrade as your fellow-members of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club!" declared Jerry.
"When do we start?" demanded Bluff, as though ready to run for the train at that very minute.
"The day after to-morrow. School closes in one more day, and father thought it wouldn't matter much if we slipped off a bit ahead of time. He will fix it with the Head all right. So, now you've got to be as busy as bees getting your duffle in readiness between now and the time the train goes, eight A.M. sharp."
"That governor of yours is certainly the finest ever. How did it come that he fell in with the idea so quickly? Did you have to beg hard?" asked Will.
"That's the strangest part of it, as I'll tell you presently. He fairly jumped at the idea when I told him about