"We've got to overhaul that other motor boat, though her length will have to be description enough if we can't get a better one," declared the young skipper. "Hank, go down and open up the motor room. Start the motors going, though be gentle. Don't break anything, or put the motors out of business. Joe, go back to the wireless, and see whether you can get a more exact description of that boat--especially the course she is believed to have sailed on. Hustle! Mr. Seaton, hadn't you better inform Dr. Cosgrove that you'll be absent for a while?"

The owner of the bungalow moved as though glad of directions that saved him the trouble of thinking.

Joe promptly sent a wireless back to Beaufort asking for a better description of the seventy-footer and the last course upon which she had been seen.

The only further word the lawyer's informant could furnish, as Joe ascertained ten minutes later, was that the boat was painted a drab tint and had a "smoke-stack" ventilator. When last seen the boat was heading out nearly due east from her starting-point.

"Going out to meet a liner, for some port," clicked Tom, as he heard the news. "Well, it's our business to find that drab motor boat."

As Joe caught up his cap, Mr. Seaton looked rather uncertainly from one boy to the other.

"You say we're to go out on this jaunt over the water," remarked the owner of the bungalow. "But I don't know. Perhaps you want me to go too badly. There may be something behind----"

"Stop right where you are, if you please, sir," broke in Tom Halstead, a decided trace of bitterness in his tone. "You're still more than half-inclined to suspect us boys of causing the loss of the papers you had hidden in the closet. I am not blaming you altogether, Mr. Seaton, though you are doing us a great injustice. But you _must_ believe in us just at the present time, for going with us offers you your only chance of catching up with Dalton and saving your own friends of the syndicate. Come along, sir! Try to trust us, whether it seems wise or not, since it's your only chance."

The young skipper seized his charter-man by one arm, almost dragging him along. Yet Powell Seaton, who was in a state of horrible uncertainty, permitted this forcing.

Outside, on the porch, Captain Tom hesitated for a moment, then, after glancing at the guards, went on briskly:

"Mr. Seaton, I know you don't want to carry an armed force for purposes of attack on anyone, and you wouldn't have a right to do it, anyway. But, as we may be attacked, if we run afoul of Dalton and his friends, won't it be much better if you take at least a couple of your armed guards from this place?"

Nodding curtly, Mr. Seaton called to Hepton and Jasper, two of the guards, explaining that they were needed for a cruise on the "Restless." The pair followed along after the others.

"You can keep your rifles, just as well, in the motor room," suggested Captain Tom, and the fire-arms were placed below.

Hank had everything in readiness for casting off. Within forty-five seconds after boarding, the "Restless" was under way, poking her nose in a north-easterly direction.

"We'd better loaf later on, rather than now, Joe," proposed the young skipper. "See how much speed you can crowd out of the motors."

Powell Seaton chose to go aft, all alone, dropping into one of the deck arm-chairs. For a long time he remained there, moody and silent.

"What liner do you figure on Dalton trying to overtake and board?"

queried Joe, coming up at last out of the motor room.

"Why, I don't just know," confessed Tom, pondering. "But I'll tell you what you can do, Joe. Leave Hank to watch the motors. You go to the wireless apparatus and send out the longest spark you can get. Direct your call to any vessel bound for Rio Janerio, or Brazil in general.

If you get an answer from such a craft, ask her lat.i.tude and longitude, course and speed, so we can make for her directly."

As Joe nodded, then dropped down into the motor room, intending to go by the pa.s.sageway under the bridge deck, Tom noted a lurking figure a few feet behind him.

"Hullo! What are you doing there, Jasper?" queried the young captain.

"Jest mindin' my own business," replied the man, with a half-surly grin.

"I'm minding mine, in asking you," retorted Halstead, quietly. "I don't like pa.s.sengers so close to me when I'm handling the boat."

"I s'pose mebbe you don't," rejoined Jasper, yet making no move.

"Won't you take a hint?" asked Tom, rather bluntly.

"Where d'ye want me to stand?" asked the fellow, sulkily.

"You could go further aft, for instance," replied Tom. One hand on the wheel, he stood half-turned, eying this stubborn guard.

"Oh, all right," came gruffly from Jasper, as he started slowly aft.

"Maybe I'm wrong for thinking much about it," muttered Tom, under his breath, "yet it was this same man who was so close to us the other night when Mr. Seaton and I were talking about the papers hidden in the closet at the bungalow."

Two or three minutes later a slight sound caused the young skipper to turn with a start. He saw Jasper in the very act of fitting a wire-nipper to one of the parallel wires of the aerial of the wireless.

In an instant Captain Tom Halstead jammed his wheel and locked it.

Then he dashed at the fellow.

CHAPTER XI

THE DRAB BOAT SHOWS HER NOSE

"You keep off!" snarled Jasper, drawing back on the defensive, holding the wire-nippers so as to use them in defending himself.

But, if the young captain of the "Restless" knew any fear, at such moments, he didn't permit others to see it. He neither stopped nor swerved. Ducking in under Jasper's extended right arm, Tom closed with the fellow, grappling.

"Confound ye! I'll have to throw ye over into the water!" growled Jasper, fighting for a hold around the boy's waist and behind his back. But Halstead fought to break the grip, at the same time yelling:

"Hank! Here, mighty quick!"

Jasper fought, trying to force the young commander to the rail. He had half succeeded when Hank b.u.t.ts raced on deck. Hepton, the other guard, who had been lounging in the engine room, was right behind b.u.t.ts. Both of them raced to reach the struggling pair. Hank caught Jasper at the waist-line, while Hepton took a hold at Jasper's neck, forcing the fellow back.

Then Tom sailed into the melee with renewed energy. Jasper was a powerfully-built fellow, but the three were too many for him. They tripped Jasper, throwing him to the deck, and Hepton sat upon his comrade's chest.

"Halstead! You others! What does this violence mean?"

Powell Seaton shouted the question sternly. He had been disturbed by the racket and now stood amidships.

"Get him over, face down," panted Tom. "We'll make sure of the fellow before we begin to explain. Hank, run for a pair of handcuffs!"

b.u.t.ts was up and off like a shot, wholly liking the nature of his errand.

"Halstead!" raged Mr. Seaton. "I insist upon an answer."

"It's a case of sea-bullying--that's what it is," growled Jasper.

"It's an outrage."

"Hepton," warned the charter-man, "get up off of Jasper's chest. Let him go."

"Don't you do it," countermanded Tom Halstead. "It won't be safe. This fellow is a snake in the gra.s.s. I caught him at his tricks."