ack accordingly proceeded to do so. He was frequently interrupted by
Jimmy, who fancied that he was neglecting some important feature of the
story. Between them everything was presently told. And the other four
hung upon the narration to the last word.

"Let's see that queer old packet, Jack," said Herb.

"That's so; give us a squint at it, anyhow," Nick demanded.

So the skipper of the _Tramp_ took the letter out carefully and held it
up.

"Excuse me for not passing it around, fellows," he remarked, "but I
gave my word it shouldn't go out of my possession until I'd found the
party mentioned. From the way the young chap acted, I guess it must be
more or less valuable, to him and this same party, anyhow."

"What is the name on the envelope--you can tell me that, can't you?"
asked Josh.

"Van Arsdale Spence," replied the bearer of the missive, as he just as
carefully replaced it in his pocket.

"Hey! that's the same last name as his, ain't it?" remarked George.

"Spence--yes, and it may be some relation of his, perhaps a brother or
father. But, fellows, that's none of our business, remember. Now,
let's talk of other things, and forget that little adventure for a
time."

Jack generally had his way, and in this case his chums realized that he
was certainly right. So they started talking about their immediate
plans for the first night out.

"We'll go ashore if we can, boys, and build a rousing fire," said Nick,
whose one great delight, outside of eating, was seeing a bonfire burn;
and, indeed, he always declared some of his remote ancestors must have
been real fire worshippers.

"Yes, that would be a good idea," Jack admitted. "There's no telling
how often on this trip we'll find ourselves forced to eat and sleep
aboard, so when the opportunity offers we might as well get out to
stretch our legs."

"Great scheme," declared Josh, who, being considerably longer than any
one of his shipmates, suffered more in consequence of cramped quarters.

"Only one thing wrong," grunted Nick, shaking his head.

"I can guess he's thinking of eating right now," flashed Josh, who knew
the symptoms in his companion only too well.

"Well, Mister Smarty, for once you hit the nail on the head," grinned
the fat boy. "I just happened to think of something we hadn't ought to
have forgotten to fetch along for our first meal."

"What was that?" demanded Jack.

"Why, when I looked over that list of things you got up, Jack,