“You see I was right about his asking you up on the bridge, Jack. What sort of luck did you have?” demanded Amos, when his chum joined him on deck.
“Good enough in some ways, though he couldn’t tell me positively whether there would be an aviation camp ashore,” Jack replied. “He did mention one on an island quite some ways off, where the injured war vessels are taken for temporary repairs. I made up my mind that since we had the chance we’d better go ashore first. If it turns out that there are no aeroplane pilots in camp we can find a way to come back again; and he says he’ll see we get to the island all right.”
“I felt it in my bones you could get nearly anything you wanted out of the Vice-Admiral,” boasted Amos.
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“As far as that goes,” the other told him, “I rather believe it was the paper we carry, signed by Kitchener, that did the trick. Every British officer on sea or land we’ve let look at that signature has acted as if he couldn’t do too much for the boys K. of K. wanted to help.”
“But how about getting ashore, and when can we go, Jack?”
“Here’s the way it stands,” came the reply. “Some time late tonight, after twelve, he said, there will come up a dispatch boat that is expected to run over to the peninsula, and make a landing, carrying orders, and other things, too.”
“And we can go aboard that, can we?” questioned Amos.
“Yes, the kind Vice-Admiral will have it all arranged for us. He also means to give us a document that will help us when we want to leave the peninsula again, no matter whether we’ve found Frank or not.”
“Good for him, Jack. One of the best things we seem to run up against is this finding a friend
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 when in need. It’s all cut and dried now, then, and we can count on getting ashore before morning breaks.”
“Barring accidents, Amos.”
“Just what do you mean by that?” asked the other, curiously.
“Stop and think how much risk hangs over a landing on the rocky peninsula, when sharp-eyed Turkish soldiers are on guard everywhere by tens of thousands, and all sorts of barbed wire entanglements have been set to trap the unwary. These landings are mighty dangerous affairs at the best, I understand.”
“They must be,” Amos admitted readily enough, “when any minute you may find yourself made a target for a quick-firer that shoots bullets as fast as you can wink, and cuts men down like ripe grain. But the darkness is in our favor, Jack.”
“Yes, and in spite of the danger some thousands of British soldiers and Territorials are ashore right now, ready to fight to the last gasp so as to hold the bit of enemy land they are squatted
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 on. When the sun comes up I count on being with them.”
“And then we may know if Frank is there or not,” added Amos, fervently, for that one consideration was ever foremost in his mind.
The two comrades had been seeking the missing one so long now, and met with so many disappointments just when success seemed within their grasp, that Amos could hardly be blamed for feeling terribly despondent at times.
That was where having a cheery chum came in, for Jack had buoyed his spirits up many a time when Amos felt that the outlook was “as blue as indigo.”
As the afternoon wore away and the sun sank to rest, the boys took note of the fact that all signs seemed to promise a good day on the morrow. This counted for considerable with them; for according to all reports there had been a season of fogs and even storms recently that had held up the work of reducing the forts defending the waterway to Constantinople.
“In spite of the stars we’ll have overhead,”
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 said Jack, “I think the night will be a dark one.”
“All the better for our landing, I should say,” was Amos’ comment.
They had been watching the preparations made by some of the battleships to meet the constant danger from a submarine, for of late it had been rumored that the Germans had succeeded in shipping an undersea boat in sections through Bulgaria, and that it might be heard from any day.
Since that time one of the larger submersibles is said to have made the long water trip past Gibraltar, and the entire length of the Mediterranean, arriving unexpectedly in time to do terrible damage among the Allied fleets; but earlier in the summer even the threat of hidden peril gave the commander of the flotilla grave concern.
In some cases nets were used to protect a vessel lying to or drifting; but as a rule their greatest protection lay in an utter absence of lights aboard. Like grim shadows the floating batteries lay here and there on the sea, ready with
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 steam up to move at any time. The destroyers hovered near by, constantly on guard; and from time to time brilliant searchlights would sweep the surroundings so thoroughly that not even a rowboat could escape their penetrating ray.
It can be easily understood that these arrangements so deeply interested the two boys that they could not bear to leave the deck until told by a steward that supper was waiting in the mess-room. That appealed strongly to Amos, whose appetite, always fair, had been considerably sharpened by the salt sea air.
The officers whom they met at supper were a very kindly set. They had heard enough about the American lads to feel considerable interest in their fortunes. Besides, being men who knew what it was to take chances, they could admire pluck no matter where found.
The daring feat of Jack and his chum in capturing the notorious blockade runner, Captain Zenos, and his entire crew, without any outside assistance, made the boys heroes in the eyes of the British officers. Hence they paid them constant
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 attention, and stood ready to extend a helping hand whenever asked.
Jack, always looking ahead, asked many questions as he at............