Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: "Charley leveled his gun and sent sixteen shrieking bullets just above the wheelman's head."]
On a Dangerous Cruise with the Greek Spongers
Author of "The Boy Chums on Indian River," "The Boy Chums on Haunted Island," "The Boy Chums in the Forest," "The Boy Chums' Perilous Cruise."
I. 3 II. MR. DRIVER. 11 III. PREPARATIONS 19 IV. THE START 27 V. THE START 36 VI. FIRST TROUBLE 45 VII. SPONGING 53 VIII. TROUBLE 61 IX. MANUEL'S RELEASE 68 X. A RASH RESOLVE 76 XI. A MYSTERY 84 XII. IN A DIVING SUIT 94 XIII. A CLOSE CALL 100 XIV. THE DISCUSSION 107 XV. A DESPERATE PLAN 115 XVI. TOO LATE 122 XVII. OUTWITTED 129 XVIII. IMPRISONED 136 XIX. WRECKED 144 XX. HUNTING HELP 152 XXI. THE CASTAWAYS 159 XXII. ANOTHER DANGER 167 XXIII. THE RELAPSE 175 XXIV. THE FLOOD 182 XXV. THE FLOATING HATCH 189 XXVI. WITH THE BOYS 197 XXVII. THE JOURNEY 205 XXVIII. JUDSON 212 XXIX. THE FEUD 219 XXX. BESIEGED 225 XXXI. THE ENEMIES 233 XXXII. THE CASTAWAYS AGAIN 240 XXXIII. THE RESCUE 247 XXXIV. CONCLUSION 255
"IT'S just like stepping suddenly into a strange country. I am glad we came even if we decide not to go into the business."
The speaker, a sturdy, manly-looking boy of eighteen, was one of a party of four persons who were strolling along a street in the Greek section of Tarpon Springs, a small Florida town, located on the Anclote River, a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico. His companions were a boy about his own age but of less robust appearance, a little negro lad with a good-humored intelligent face, and a middle-aged, heavily-bearded, blue-eyed man whose tattooed arms and rolling gait told of a life spent on tossing seas and whose confident bearing and air of authority stamped him as one above the rank of a common sailor.
Those who have followed The Boy Chums through their many adventures will recognize in the little party their old friends Charley West, Walter Hazard, Captain Westfield and the Bahama lad, Chris, who lately returned from a perilous trip along the Atlantic beach searching for wreckage, and now seeking some promising venture in which to invest the Fifteen Hundred Dollars they earned on that voyage.