The man was Captain Amos Springer!
CHAPTER XII
BOUND FOR THE OCEAN LANES
The captain recognized the Radio Boys at once, and he sprang quickly to his feet, his face quite as full of surprise and delight at the unexpected meeting as their own.
“Upon my word!” he ejaculated, as he shook hands with them warmly one after the other. “This is a bit of good luck I never dreamed of! I had been hoping to meet you again, but I had no idea our meeting would come about in any such way as this. So you are the four boys that our boat picked up last night! Sit right down and tell me all about it.”
The ensign had saluted and vanished, much impressed by the warmth of the reception that had been extended to the castaways by the captain.
The boys seated themselves, still somewhat in a daze, but glad beyond measure that fate had thrown them into the hands of so staunch a friend. In a few words, Bob, acting as spokesman for the group, narrated the particulars of the collision and the sinking of their steamer.
“And you’ll never know, Captain, how good it was to see that searchlight of yours shining through the fog on our little boat,” he said, in conclusion. “What with the wet, the cold, and the worry, we were about all in.”
“I don’t wonder,” replied the captain, sympathetically. “You were in a plight calculated to tax the strength and courage of experienced sailors. If a storm had come up, it would have been a matter of touch and go, and you might not have been rescued at all. I’m mighty glad that our vessel was in range of your S. O. S.”
“You can’t be any more glad than we are,” responded Joe. “We’d rather find ourselves on your boat than on any other in the world.”
“Even if it is carrying you farther and farther from your friends and home with every hour that passes?” asked the captain, with a smile.