Part 36 (1/2)
”Yes” replied Jack, ”but none of them will be about so great a cause.”
”You are right, Jack,” Captain Dennis said fervently; ”it was a good cause. But come, you are tired, so let us say 'good night,' my friends.”
A half hour later Jack and Ned were fast asleep, dreaming of those stirring times when the immortal Abraham Lincoln was President of this glorious nation.
The next week the _Columbia_ sailed again. As she pa.s.sed out of New York harbor, and past Sandy Hook, the pa.s.sengers crowded to the rail to look at a beautiful sea picture.
The sun was setting, and the radiance turned to gold the white sails of a beautiful bark outward bound. As she heeled over on the starboard tack, it was evident that she would pa.s.s close to the steamer. From the wireless room Jack Ready and Billy Raynor watched the pretty sight with more interest, perhaps--certainly it was so in Jack's case--than anyone else on board.
”It's the _Silver Star_, Jack, Captain Dennis's s.h.i.+p,” said Billy.
Jack nodded.
”I know it,” he answered. ”She sailed this morning. I've been on the lookout for her all the way down the bay.”
There was silence between the two chums. The _Silver Star_, gliding swiftly through the water, came steadily on. As the steamer pa.s.sed her, she was quite close, looking like a beautiful toy from the towering decks of the _Columbia_.
”Look!” exclaimed Billy, half in a whisper, as her ensign fluttered down in salute and then climbed upward to the peak again. A booming roar from the _Columbia's_ siren acknowledged the compliment.
But Jack had no eyes for this. His gaze was fixed on the stern deck of the _Silver Star_, where, by her steering-wheel, gripped by two stalwart seamen, stood an upright old man, with gla.s.ses bent on the _Columbia_. A graceful girl was at his side. Jack saw her wave, and was waving frantically back, when there came an insistent summons from the wireless room.
When he came out on deck again twilight had fallen, but far back on the horizon was a tiny blur--the _Silver Star_. As Jack gazed back at her, she vanished below the horizon as suddenly as an extinguished spark in a piece of tinder.
”Good-night,” breathed Jack, and he stood for a long time motionless, leaning on the rail.
And here, for the time being, we, too, will say good-by to our young friends, to meet them all again in the next volume devoted to their doings, which will be called ”The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Pacific.”
THE END.
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KINDERGARTEN LIMERICKS
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_Pictures by Arthur O. Scott with a Foreword by Lucy Wheelock_
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