Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/169

Rh Roger," answered Dave. "I am going to try to locate that schooner first."

"No, I'll wait too, then," said Roger.

The shipping along the St. John's River at Jacksonville is rather extensive. But Dunston Porter knew his business and went direct to one of the offices where he knew he could find out all about the ships going out under charter and otherwise.

"We want to find out about a schooner named the Emma Brown, or Black, or Jones, or some common name like that," said Dave's uncle, to the elderly man in charge. "She was in this harbor several days ago. I don't know if she has sailed or not."

"Emma Brown, eh?" mused the shipping-clerk. "Never heard of such a schooner."

"Maybe she was the Emma Black, or Emma Jones," suggested Dave.

"No schooner by that name here,—at least not for the past month or two. We had an Emma Blackney here about six weeks ago. But she sailed for Nova Scotia."

"Well, try to think of some ship that might be named something like what we said," pleaded Dave. "This is very important."

"A ship that might have sailed from here in the past two or three days," added Roger.

The elderly shipping-clerk leaned back in his