“Down the Bay, through the Narrows, and then anywhere, Captain; say, down along the Jersey coast. We’ll be out all night,” announced Mr. Delavan, “though you’ll not need to put on much speed. Be back at eight in the morning, as you were this morning.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Captain Tom, saluting lightly.
Hank cast off, bow and stern, then hurried below, getting into his white jacket and busying himself with the dinner.
By the time they were a mile from the pier dinner was announced. They were through the Narrows, and some miles down the New Jersey coast when the gentlemen came out of the cabin again. It was a fine, starlit night. While the others seated themselves in chairs on the after deck, Mr. Prescott climbed up the steps, pulling up an arm chair so that he could sit close to the young captain. As the “Rocket” was going along at less than ten miles an hour and the sea was smooth, the young skipper had not much in the way of duty to occupy his attention.
“Tom,” began the Boston broker, “I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you have been able to be of such grand service to my friend, Delavan. I recommended Dawson and yourself to him, and he says it has proved to be the greatest service I ever did, or could do him.”
“Is it a proper question if I ask whether Mr. Delavan is now safely on his feet again?” ventured Halstead.
“It’ll take to-morrow’s dealings on ’Change to show whether he’s sage,” replied Mr. Prescott. “But, if he hadn’t been on hand to-day, just as he was, nothing could have saved him. By three o’clock this afternoon the Delavan-Moddridge combination would have been wiped off the slate for good. Frank Delavan will be back and fighting again to-morrow. Perhaps the greatest strain of all will be to-morrow, for the ‘shorts’ are powerful and they simply must fight. But Delavan isn’t by any means cast down.”
As if to prove this, Mr. Delavan’s voice was heard, at that moment, as he broke into a roar of laughter over a story that had just been told by one of his guests.
“He doesn’t seem to know what fear or nerves mean,” smiled Captain Tom. “I never knew a man who seemed to care so little about the things that worry most men to death.”
“I think most likely,” replied Mr. Prescott, musingly, “he is no more a stranger to worry than other men. But he has wonderful courage and perfect control of himself. Frank Delavan will never allow himself to be frightened until he has found out just what it was that scared him.”