The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf

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Captain Quincy Allen
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Title: The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf
Author: Captain Quincy Allen
Release Date: November 23, 2004 [eBook #14130]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF***
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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF

Or, Rescuing the Lost Balloonists
by
CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN
Author of The Outdoor Chums, The Outdoor Chums on the Lake, The
Outdoor Chums after Big Game, etc.
1911

CONTENTS
I UNDER SEALED ORDERS II CAUGHT IN A FIRE TRAP III
HEADED SOUTH IV JERRY MEETS TROUBLE HALF WAY V
THE FIRST CAMPFIRE VI THE SWAMP FUGITIVE VII A
FLORIDA SHERIFF VIII WILL DOES IT IX THE MOTOR-BOAT
AND THE PROWLERS X BLUFF'S FIRST 'GATOR XI ALL THE
COMFORTS OF SALT WATER XII THE BREAKDOWN OF THE
MOTOR XIII LOST IN THE FOG XIV A CRY ACROSS THE
LAGOON XV A VISIT TO THE MYSTERIOUS SHARPIE XVI JOE
XVII STUCK ON AN OYSTER BAR XVIII TROUBLE XIX WHAT
HAPPENED TO JERRY XX LYING IN AMBUSH FOR BIG GAME
XXI A STRENUOUS NIGHT XXII THE MESSAGE FROM THE
AIR XXIII A DASH UPON THE GULF XXIV THE "NORTHER"
XXV THE SECRET OF THE SEALED PACKET--CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I
UNDER SEALED ORDERS
"Now KEEP your word, Frank, and tell us the news!"
"Yes, you got us to come to your house tonight under a promise,
remember. What wonderful thing has happened to make you look so
tickled?"

"Talk to me about the Sphinx! Frank has the old relic beaten to a
frazzle!"
Three boys gathered eagerly around the fourth as they bombarded him
after this fashion. Frank Langdon looked at the faces of his chums and
laughed again.
"Well, it would be a shame to keep you squirming on the anxious seat
any longer, boys, and I'm going to take you into my confidence just as
fast as I can. Sit down and hold your oars. Jerry, pull that stool up; Will,
the settee must do for you and Bluff. Now, are you ready?" he asked,
tantalizingly.
"Crazy to hear!" was the characteristic reply of Bluff, otherwise
Richard Masters, son of Centerville's greatest lawyer.
"Tell me about that, will you?" exclaimed Jerry Wallington.
"Please go on before we explode!" begged Will Milton.
"These things always have a beginning, you know. This one happens to
be founded on the fact that we are close to our annual Christmas
vacation, and that this year it happens that we're going to enjoy two full
weeks--you know that?" said Frank.
"Of course we do, thanks to that steam-heater getting out of order. But
don't rehash old stuff. That's history by now. What we want is the meat
in the cocoanut. Please hit for the bull's-eye, first chop," pleaded Will.
"I was wondering what we would do with ourselves during that time.
There's old Jesse Wilcox, the trapper, who invited us up to spend a
week with him and see how he runs out his string of traps in cold
weather, catching muskrats, mink, 'coons, foxes and all such things in
more or less abundance. We had about decided that we would accept,
and I was even getting ready to go when something happened."
"Talk to me about your tantalizing chaps, did you ever meet up with
one as bad as Frank can be when he knows the rest of us are so keen to

hear?" cried Jerry.
"What was it?" demanded Bluff.
"I had a letter that changed my mind," replied Frank.
"Not from old Jesse?"
"Well, hardly, for I don't believe the old fellow can write. This was
from one of my cousins, a fellow several years older than myself. You
met him about a year ago when he stopped with us a few days."
"You must mean Archie Dunn," said Will.
"Go up head, Will. Archie it was. I was glad enough to get a letter from
him, but when I read what he had to propose I thought I should have a
fit."
"Just as we will, unless you hurry your yarn," growled Jerry, moving
uneasily.
"Well, Archie wrote that he had laid out a plan for his amusement this
winter. You know he is independent, having come into quite a snug
fortune. He is as fond of outdoor life as any member of this