Two days after the Albatross left Savannah harbor, another small steam vessel made her way in. Had any one been interested in her identity he could have made out the name Princess on bow and stern, but to the casual observer this meant little or nothing, save that the craft was not a very spruce-looking member of the royal family.
There was an air of neglect about her. The paint was scraped off in many places, and was dingy in others. When she rolled a bit on the swells a glimpse could be had of many barnacles clinging to her copper plates. In fact, she was rather a forlorn Princess who came to anchor on the edge of the channel.
"Now, you boys get into a boat, go ashore and see if he's been here," said an old man, whose chin was adorned with a small bunch of white whiskers, that moved up and down when he talked. "Just make some inquiries, and find out if the yacht Albatross has been here, and when she left. And, mind you, don't you go to spending money, 'cause I won't give you any more."
"Maybe Sam or I had better go along," suggested the shorter of two men, who stood leaning over the yacht's side. "We can make better inquiries than either Guy or Simon, Mr. Larabee."
"That may be, Sam Newton," admitted Dick's Uncle Ezra, whom, I suppose, the reader has already identified as the old man in question. "That may be, but I want you and Ike Murdock to stay on board, and have a talk with me. We've got to plan to catch my nephew, and he's ahead of us in a fast yacht."
"Then why did you want to stop here?" asked the man addressed as Ike Murdock.
"I wanted to make sure he'd been here. You never can tell what that boy will do. Since his father so foolishly let him have all the money he wants, he goes all about, looking for ways to spend it."
"And you're going to stop him," suggested Sam Newton.
"That's my intention. He'd have been stopped by this time if you men had managed to get hold of him, as I told you to, and paid you for. You bungled the whole business, and made me have to hire this steamship to take after him. Why didn't you get him into my hands secretly, as I thought you would?"