ack," remarked
the young fellow, as he thrust the memorandum book once more in his
pocket. "Never dreamed of such good luck when I took a notion to swoop
down, and see what three bully little craft were doing, headed for
Delaware Bay. Going all the way to Florida, you say; and by the inside
passage, too? I wonder, now, would that happen to take you in the
neighborhood of Beaufort, North Carolina?"

An eager expression had suddenly flashed across his face, and Jack saw
his eyes sparkle, as with anticipation; though for the life of him he
could not understand just why this should be so, unless the said
Beaufort happened to have been the home port of the hydro-aeroplane
flier, and the mere thought of their being in that vicinity gave him a
homesick thrill.

"Why, yes, I remember that I've got Beaufort marked on the chart as one
of our stopping places," Jack hastened to reply. "Could I do anything
for you while there? I'd be quite willing to oblige you--er, by the
way, you haven't told us your name in return for having ours!"

"That's a fact, I haven't," he replied, quickly, but Jack thought with
just a trifle of embarrassment; "it's Malcolm Spence."

"Oh! I believe I've read a lot about your doings with one of these air
and water fliers. There were some pretty stirring accounts of your
trips in the papers out our way not long ago!" Jack exclaimed, looking
at the young fellow with considerable admiration; since hero worship
has just as strong a hold upon the human heart in these modern days as
in times of old, when knights went forth to do battle with dragons, and
all kinds of terrible monsters.

"I believe they have been showing me up, more or less; but I try to
avoid those newspaper men all I can, because they stretch things so,"
young Spence modestly remarked. "That's why I come down here to try
out any new little wrinkle I may happen to have hit on. A week ago I
started off the deck of a Government war vessel, a big cruiser, went up
a thousand feet, dropped to the water, and last of all landed again in
the same place from which I started--all to prove how valuable a
hydro-aeroplane would be in case of real war."

"Yes, I was reading about that while we were on the way here, but
somehow didn't remember the name of the one who had done it," Jack went
on, while the little motor boat and the new-fangled contraption that
seemed perfectly at home in the air or floating on the waves kept
company on the tide of