who are in that business."

The run to New York City occurred without special incident, and soon the
boys found themselves saying good-bye to Mr. Lawrence and Captain
Bradley. It had been decided that Phil should accompany Dave and Ben to
Crumville, he to remain with our hero at the Wadsworth mansion.

"Take care of my boy," said the shipowner, as he shook hands with Dave.

"Oh, we'll take care of him, Mr. Lawrence, don't fear," answered our
hero. And then, leaving Mr. Lawrence to look after matters concerning
his various vessels, the boys hurried to the Grand Central Terminal,
and were soon on a train which was to take them to their various
destinations.

As my old readers know, Crumville was rather a small town; the only
industry of importance being Mr. Wadsworth's jewelry works. The
Wadsworth mansion stood on the outskirts, a large and well-constructed
building, set among a number of trees and bushes. When Dave, Phil, and
Ben alighted at the railroad depot, they found the Wadsworth touring-car
awaiting them. Dunston Porter, Dave's uncle, was driving the car, and he
had with him Dave's sister Laura, and Jessie Wadsworth.

"Oh, here they are!" cried Laura, and leaped out to embrace her brother
and to shake hands with the others. Then Jessie shook hands, giving Dave
an extra bright smile as she did so.

"Back from the salt, salt sea!" cried Laura, merrily. "I'll wager you
were all dreadfully seasick."

"Nothing doing on that score, Laura," answered her brother. "We didn't
have time to get seasick; we had too much fun."

"And too many adventures," added Phil. "Oh, I can tell you, girls, we
are heroes!" and he stuck his thumbs in the armholes of his vest, and
began to strut around.

"Adventures, eh?" queried Dunston Porter. "What sort of adventures--a
shipwreck?"

"Oh, Mr. Porter, please don't talk about a shipwreck!" pleaded Jessie,
agitatedly. "Why, you don't want anybody to be drowned, do you?"

"They don't look very much as if they had been in a shipwreck,"
responded Dave's uncle, dryly. "I was only fooling."

"We weren't in any shipwreck. But we saw a fire at sea, and we helped to
pull some folks out of the water," said Ben.

"You did!" burst from both of the girls.

"Do tell us all about it," added Laura.

"Was anybody lost?" asked Jessie. And now even Dunston Porter looked
much interested.

"Nobody was lost, and not even hurt, so far as I could find out,"
answered Dave; and then he and the othe