“Sounds as if they’re cheering this boat for some reason.” The chief seemed to understand.
“Three cheers for Frank Allen and Lanky Wallace!” they heard some one cry from the shore, and the cry was followed by wild cheering by the crowd.
Frank brought the Rocket up to the main landing, with the crowd laughing, cheering, waving and talking, and allowed the chief and his policemen to take the three prisoners off the boat. Then he very easily pulled out and circled to the boat-house where the Rocket slipped in easily, seeming still to have the same go and pep that it had in the beginning.
“She doesn’t seem to be a bit tired,” said Frank.
To this Lanky replied that the indicator on the gas tank said she ought to be feeling quite run down, inasmuch as the pin was standing close to the word “empty.”
“Oh, well, before we take her out again we can fill her,” and the two boys walked out of the house and locked the door.
Instantly they were seized by friends in the crowd, and a thousand questions of all kinds were shot at them.
Frank spied the doctor in the crowd, and before answering any of the questions, before hardly being civil to his friends, he called to that gentleman:
“Doctor, how’s dad? Any good news this morning?”
“Nothing else but good news, boy!” the doctor waved back at him. “Don’t worry—he’s getting along nicely. Going to get well, quick!”