Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team FRANK MERRIWELL'S CRUISE BY BURT L. STANDISH AUTHOR OF "Frank Merriwell's Schooldays," "Frank Merriwell's Chums," "Frank Merriwell's Foes," "Frank Merriwell's Trip West," etc. PHILADELPHIA DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER 604-8 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE Copyright, 1898 By STREET & SMITH Frank Merriwell's Cruise FRANK MERRIWELL'S CRUISE. CHAPTER I. THE MEETING IN BOSTON. "MR. JOHN DIAMOND, Lexington, Pa.: If you wish cruise in down East waters, join me Monday next at American Hotel, Boston. Have purchased yacht. Hodge and Browning will be in party. Great sport anticipated. "MERRIWELL." Jack Diamond was reclining in a hammock suspended in the shade of an artificial arbor when this message from Frank Merriwell was handed to him by a boy. He tore open the envelope and read it, his eyes beginning to sparkle and a flush coming to his handsome, aristocratic face. "Just like him!" exclaimed Jack. "Before leaving Fardale he aroused our curiosity about that part of the country, and now he proposes taking us down there in his own yacht. Will I go? Will I? I wouldn't miss it for the world!" It had not taken him a minute to decide. * * * * * A cab rattled up to the front of the American Hotel, on Hanover Street, Boston, and stopped. The door flew open, and out stepped a smartly dressed young man, wearing russet shoes, a light-colored box coat and a brown Alpine hat. He carried a handsome alligator-skin traveling bag in his hand. Paying cabbie without speaking a word, this youth turned and walked into the hotel. As he entered, a colored boy hastened forward and relieved him of his traveling bag. He stepped up to the clerk's desk and said: "I am Jack Diamond, of Virginia, and I wish to see Mr. Frank Merriwell, who is stopping here." "Yes, sir," said the clerk, politely. "Mr. Merriwell left orders that you be shown up immediately on your arrival. Twenty-three, show Mr. Diamond to Mr. Merriwell's rooms." "Right this way, sah," said the colored boy. Jack followed the uniformed bell boy, who paused at the elevator shaft and pressed a button. In a moment the elevator came gliding noiselessly down, the door slid open, a lady and a gentleman stepped out and Diamond stepped in. "Third," said the bell boy, and then he turned and disappeared, while the elevator man closed the door and sent the car gliding upward. He stopped at the third floor, and, to Jack's surprise, the bell boy with the grip was there, calmly awaiting his arrival. Jack followed him to the door of a room at the front of the house. As the boy lifted his hand to knock at the door, there was a burst of laughter within, plainly heard, as the transom was open, and Frank Merriwell's voice cried: "Hans, if you could tell that story on the stage just as you told it then you would make your fortune."