A chorus of cheers followed him. Glancing across the pier, Frank noted the owner of the motor boat surrounded by a crowd and being interviewed by two young fellows who looked like newspaper reporters. One of them parted the throng suddenly and ran along the pier, focussing a camera upon the launch. He took a snap shot and waved his hand with an admiring gesture at its operator.
“Young man, I don’t know when I have been so pleased and proud,” observed the owner of the launch as Frank drove up to the pier where he stood. “I’m glad I had my boat at hand and as bright and smart a fellow as you to run it just in the nick of time.”
Frank felt pleased over his efforts to be helpful to others. He was too boyish and ingenuous not to suffer some embarrassment as he passed little groups staring after him. Such remarks as “That’s him!” “There he goes!” “Plucky fellow!” and the like greeted his hearing and made him blush consciously.
He found his friends down the beach, Randy laughing at Pep and joking with him, the latter seated on the edge of the boardwalk emptying the water out of his shoes and grumbling at a great rate.
“What’s the trouble, Pep?” hailed Frank.
“Trouble! Say, whenever I think of my chance to duck that cheap cad we took aboard the skiff I want to lam myself. ‘Jumped overboard to hurry for help,’ he claimed. Then found ‘that he had forgotten he couldn’t swim.’ Bah!” and the irate Pep slammed his shoe down on a board as if it was the head of the offensive and offending Peter Carrington.
“We’ll go up town and get you dried out, Pep,” remarked Frank. “I say, fellows, I’m inclined to believe that we’re going to find an opportunity of some kind here at Seaside Park. The little hotel we inquired at seems to be the cheapest in the place, and we had better make arrangements there for a sort of headquarters, even if we don’t stay here more than a day or two.”
“That suits,” nodded Randy. “The man offered a double room on the top floor for a dollar, and we can pick up our meals outside.”
The three chums concluded the arrangement at the Beach Hotel. Fortunately each had brought an extra suit of clothes on his journey, and Pep was placed in comfortable trim once more. Then they sallied forth again to make a tour of the parts of the little town they had not previously visited.
“Just look at the crowds right within a stone’s throw of the place we are thinking of renting,” said Pep, as quite naturally they wandered back to the empty store so suited to their purposes and so desired by each.