At Southampton they learned that the _St. Mark_ was likely to be tied up for some time. Rumors of mines and torpedoes made the owners unwilling to risk her loss. The two lads, therefore, left the vessel, and proceeded to London, where their instructions were to visit agents of the line and learn if anything had been heard of Tom Jukes. They found the city thronged with marching soldiers and territorials, while everywhere proclamations calling on the men of England to enlist were posted. Otherwise, however, everything appeared to be going on as if there were no war.
Inquiry at the agents resulted in a meagre clue to the whereabouts of the lad of whom they were in search. He had wired for funds from Malines, a Belgian town, a few days before war was declared and the Germans invaded Belgium. Since then nothing had been heard of him.
The magnitude of their task appeared greater than ever to the two lads now that they had actually started the work. But Jack was not the sort of lad to give up at the first difficulty.
"We'll go to Belgium," he announced, but right here a stumbling block appeared.
There were no longer regular steamers running to Belgian ports, and the small and infrequent craft that did venture had been warned by the Admiralty that the North Sea was thickly sown with mines. It was a journey full of peril but, nothing daunted, Jack and Bill journeyed to Grimsby, a town on the east coast, where they were told they might be able to engage passage on a trawler, provided they could find a captain adventurous enough to take them across.
All this took up valuable time, for in the confusion and turmoil of war time, business was harder to transact than in normal times. Two days were consumed in London, but on the evening of the second they started for Grimsby. As they took their seats in the train, a newsboy came along shouting "War Extras." They bought some of his papers and settled back to read them.
"Well, here's an encouraging item," said Bill ironically, as the train moved out. He pointed to a despatch headed:
"Trawler destroyed by mines in the North Sea."
"We'll have to take our chances," decided Jack, "but, hullo--what's this?" he exclaimed suddenly; "listen here, Bill."