"Oh, but you needn't be. Mr. Pertell will make it all right even if——"
"He isn't bigger than Johnnie Bull," said Jack ominously, "though Mr. Pertell is a good friend of mine. Ha! Didn't I tell you? There they come right for us, and they're signallin' us to lay to."
It was evident that something had taken place aboard the steamer. A signal flag broke out at her mast, and Captain Brisco, seeing it, exclaimed impatiently:
"What can they want with us?"
"They want to talk, that's evident," said Hen Lacomb, who stood near the commander.
"But what about?"
"We'll soon know."
As the Mary Ellen lay almost motionless on the sea, for she had been brought up sharply, the steamer approached. It was so calm that she could come quite close without danger of a collision. A man, evidently an officer, hailed through a megaphone. Jack dared not desert his place as lookout.
"What vessel is that?" demanded the officer of the British steamer.
"The Mary Ellen, from New York," answered Captain Brisco. "Out on a moving picture cruise. We're in a hurry."