Two days after the _Albatross_ left Savannah harbor, another small steam
vessel made her way in. Had any one been interested in her identity he
could have made out the name _Princess_ on bow and stern, but to the
casual observer this meant little or nothing, save that the craft was
not a very spruce-looking member of the royal family.
There was an air of neglect about her. The paint was scraped off in many
places, and was dingy in others. When she rolled a bit on the swells a
glimpse could be had of many barnacles clinging to her copper plates. In
fact, she was rather a forlorn _Princess_ who came to anchor on the edge
of the channel.
"Now, you boys get into a boat, go ashore and see if he's been here,"
said an old man, whose chin was adorned with a small bunch of white
whiskers, that moved up and down when he talked. "Just make some
inquiries, and find out if the yacht _Albatross_ has been here, and when
she left. And, mind you, don't you go to spending money, 'cause I won't
give you any more."
"Maybe Sam or I had better go along," suggested the shorter of two men,
who stood leaning over the yacht's side. "We can make better inquiries
than either Guy or Simon, Mr. Larabee."
"That may be, Sam Newton," admitted Dick's Uncle Ezra, whom, I suppose,
the reader has already identified as the old man in question. "That may
be, but I want you and Ike Murdock to stay on board, and have a talk
with me. We've got to plan to catch my nephew, and he's ahead of us in a
fast yacht."
"Then why did you want to stop here?" asked the man addressed as Ike
Murdock.
"I wanted to make sure he'd been here. You never can tell what that boy
will do. Since his father so foolishly let him have all the money he
wants, he goes all about, looking for ways to spend it."
"And you're going to stop him," suggested Sam Newton.
"That's my intention. He'd have been stopped by this time if you men had
managed to get hold of him, as I told you to, and paid you for. You
bungled the whole business, and made me have to hire this steamship to
take after him. Why didn't you get him into my hands secretly, as I
thought you would?"
"Because he was too smart for us," admitted Ike, bitterly. "We had him
fairly on board this yacht, and only for that old sailor, who happened
to recognize one of our crew, your nephew would be where you want him,
by this time."
"And that would be in a place where he can't squander his fortune," went
on Uncle Ezra, savagely. "If his father won't teach him habits of thrift
and industry, and how to save his money, I will, for he is my only
sister's child. I may be running a big risk in doing it this way, but
it's worth it."
"It certainly is a risk--for you and for us--if we're caught," murmured
Sam. "But I don't care, as long as I get well paid."
"Me either," added Ike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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