University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXX
THE END OF BLOWITZ--CONCLUSION

"ARE you going to stop?" asked Ned, of Maurice De Vere.

"Not unless you boys are afraid. I don't believe they can hit us. That's only a small saluting cannon they have, and it's hard to shoot straight when there's as much sea on as there is now. Do you want to stop and surrender?"

"Not much!" cried the three motor boys in a breath.

"Then may it be a stern chase and a long chase!" exclaimed Mr. De Vere. "Crowd her all you can, Ned, and we'll beat him."

Ned needed no urging to make the powerful motor do its best. The machinery was throbbing and humming, and the Ripper was cutting through the water "with a bone in her teeth," as the sailors say.

"Swing her around so as to get the tug in back of us," advised Jerry. "We'll be in less danger then."

Ned shifted the wheel, but, as he was doing so there was another shot from the Monarch, and, this time, the ball from the cannon came uncomfortably close.

"Their aim is improving," remarked Mr. De Vere, as he coolly looked at the pursuing tug through the glasses, "but we are leaving them behind."

The chase had now become a "stern" one, that is the Monarch was directly astern of the Ripper, and the varying progresses made by the boats could not be discerned so well as before. Still it seemed that the motor boat was maintaining her lead.

It now settled down to a pursuit, for, stern on as she was, the Ripper offered so small a mark for the tug, that it was almost useless to fire the cannon.

There were anxious hearts aboard the motor boat, as they watched the tug pursuing them. They knew there would be a fight if Blowitz and Mr. De Vere met, and, in the latter's crippled condition, it was not hard to imagine how it would result.

"How's she running, Ned?" asked Jerry, as he looked at the engine.

"Never better. She's singing like a bird. This is a dandy boat."

"I think we'll beat him," declared Mr. De Vere.

For an hour or more the chase continued, the Monarch seeming to gain slowly. Mr. De Vere looked anxious, and kept his eyes fixed to the binoculars, through which he viewed the pursuing vessel. At length, however, a more cheerful look came into his face.

"Something has happened!" he exclaimed.

"Happened? How?" asked Jerry.

"Why aboard the tug. Blowitz went off the deck in a hurry, and the steersman has left the pilot house. Maybe something is wrong with the machinery."

That something of this nature had happened was evident a few minutes later, for the Monarch had to slow up, and the Ripper was soon so far in advance that to catch up with her was out of the question.

"I guess the chase is over," announced Mr. De Vere. "I think they've had an accident. Still Blowitz will not give up. I must expect a legal battle over this matter when I get ashore. He will try to ruin me, and claim these papers and the gold. But I will beat him."

The Ripper, urged on by her powerful motor, soon lost sight of the tug, which, from the last observation Mr. De Vere took, seemed to have turned about, to go back to the brig.

Two days later, having made quick time, and on a straight course, the voyagers sighted the harbor of San Felicity a few miles away.

"Now for home!" cried Ned.

"And the bungalow 'The Next Day,' Ponto and a good square meal!" added Bob.

"And the girls," came from Jerry. "I guess they'll be glad to see us."

"If Blowitz doesn't turn up to make trouble for me," put in Mr. De Vere, rather dubiously.

The Ripper docked that afternoon, and, Mr. De Vere, promising to call on the boys and pay them their prize money as soon as he had seen his lawyer, and deposited the gold and papers in a safe place, bade them good-bye at the wharf, and hurried off. He was fearful lest he should be intercepted by some agent of Blowitz, though there was no sign that the tug had arrived.

The three boys were warmly welcomed by the girls and Mr. Seabury, when they got to the bungalow.

"I congratulate you," said the elderly gentleman.

"You deserve great credit for what you did."

"Well, we had good luck," admitted Jerry. "But where is the professor?"

"Out searching for horned toads and web-footed lizards," said Nellie. "He has enlisted the services of Ponto, and they are continually on the hunt. I hope he gets what he wants."

"He generally does," said Bob. "If he doesn't he finds something else nearly as good."

Some days later Mr. De Vere called at the bungalow. He had finished up his business affairs, and brought the boys the prize money, as their reward for the parts they had played in the finding of the derelict.

"But this is too much," protested Jerry, when Mr. De Vere had given him and his comrades nearly half as much again as was originally promised.

"Not a bit of it," was the reply. "I can well afford it. Those papers were more valuable than you supposed, and I find I will be able to collect insurance on the cargo of the abandoned brig. I have heard from the captain of it, and he tells me, just as I supposed, that he and the crew left her because of the peculiar fumes, so that my theory was right, after all. They tried

to take the dogs, which belonged to the first mate, but could not."

"Did you hear anything more of Blowitz?" asked Ned.

"Yes," replied Mr. De Vere, rather solemnly. "Blowitz was killed shortly after the tug gave up the chase."

"How?"

"The boiler blew up when the tug was trying to tow the derelict in, and he and several of the crew were burned to death. The survivors floated on the wreckage until they were picked up. So I have nothing more to fear from Blowitz. But I called to know if you boys, and the young ladies, Mr. Seabury and Professor Snodgrass, would not be my guests at a little dinner I am to give at the hotel. I want to show you that I appreciate what you did for me."

"I think you have already done so," said Jerry.

"Perhaps I have, but I would like you to come to my dinner. Will you?"

The boys promised. So did the girls and Mr. Seabury, whose health was much improved by the California climate. The professor, with a far away look in his eyes, said he would be there if he could.

"What's to prevent you?" asked Bob.

"Well, I haven't found that horned toad yet, and I'm still searching."

The dinner came off three nights later. It was a grand affair, served in the best of style of which the San Felicity hotel chef was capable. The girls and the boys were there, dressed in their best, and Ponto was taken along as a sort of chaperon, which gave him great delight. He did not once fall asleep.

"But where is Professor Snodgrass?" asked Mr. De Vere, when it was nearly time to sit down. "Isn't he coming?"

"He promised to be here," announced Mr. Seabury. "Probably he is on his way now."

At that moment a commotion was heard outside the private dining-room which Mr. De Vere had engaged. A voice was saying:

"I tell you I will go in! I'm invited! My clothes? What about my clothes? All mud? Of course they're all mud. I couldn't help it!"

Then the door flew open and a curious sight was presented. There stood the professor, his coat split up the back, his trousers torn, and his hat smashed. Splashes of mud were all over him.

"What is the matter?" cried Mr. Seabury, in alarm.

"Nothing," replied the professor calmly. "I

have caught two horned toads, that's all. I saw them as I was on the way here, and I had to go into a mud puddle to get them. I fell down, but I got the toads," and he held up a small cage, in which were the ugly creatures.

"Ugh!" exclaimed Nellie.

"Good for you, Professor!" cried Jerry. "You got the toads and we got our prize money!"

"Yes, but I would rather have these toads than all your prize money," replied the professor. "They are beauties," he added, fondly.

The dinner was a joyous affair, and it is a question who was the happiest, the professor, over the capture of the horned toads, the boys over the successful outcome of their cruise on the Pacific, or Mr. De Vere, who had recovered his fortune. At any rate they all had a good time.

"Well," remarked Bob, when the supper was over, and they were on their way back to the bungalow, "I suppose we'll soon have to think of getting back east, and beginning school. They must have the pipes and boiler fixed by now."

"Don't think of it," begged Ned. "It's too awful. I'd like to go on another long cruise in the Ripper."

"Well, I don't know that we can do that," said Jerry, "but I certainly hope we have more adventures

soon." How his wish was gratified will be told in another volume of this series, to be entitled, "The Motor Boys in the Clouds; Or, A Trip for Fame and Fortune." In that book we shall meet many of our old friends again, and learn something more of a venture in which the motor boys were already interested.

"Boys, this has been an interesting trip for me," said Professor Snodgrass. "I have the two horned toads, seven web-footed lizards, and over fifty other valuable specimens to take back with me. I would not have missed this trip for a great deal."

"So say we all of us!" cried Jerry.

"Let us go out for another trip in the motor boat to-morrow," said Ned. "I mean a short trip."

"Take us along!" pleaded the girls in concert.

"Sure thing!" answered the boys.

And they went out--and had a glorious time--and here we shall have to say farewell.

THE END