"Say," hailed back Jed, "I don't believe there's a soul on board that craft. I can see the bottom of the inside of the boat."

"Get the boat-hook, then," ordered Halstead. "We'll lay alongside and make sure that she's deserted."

Jed jumped down nimbly. Apparently he was glad to provide himself with so handy a weapon as the boat-hook. With this he stepped out forward again. Tom ran the Meteor in until the two craft almost b.u.mped.

"Ugh!" grunted Jed. "It looks almost uncanny to see that engine pumping right along with no sign of human care."

Gradually he drew the bow of the moving launch closer.

"Go aboard," directed Tom.

Jed stood up high on his toes, to take a last careful look. Then he leaped to the other craft, bounding down into her c.o.c.kpit. There he stood still for a few moments, tightly gripping the boat-hook in an exaggerated att.i.tude of defence.

"Are you afraid?" hailed Halstead.

"Well," admitted Jed, candidly, "I've no notion for being pounced on or shot from ambush."

"That would have happened already, if it was going to," Tom rejoined with a smile. "Stop the engine, and then we'll make fast and all come on board."

That Jed accomplished with one hand, while Joe did the same with the "Meteor's" engine. Then Prentiss reached over with the boat-hook, gradually hauling the smaller craft up to the "Meteor."

Leaving Joe behind on deck, the young skipper followed into the launch.

A quick search made it plain that there was no human being in either the forward or after cubby.

"The wheel was spiked," discovered Tom. "You see, the boat was started on her course and then her spiked wheel held her rather close to it.

Whoever was aboard, after having fixed wheel and engine, got off. This was done to fool us, and we've had a fine old chase."

Lawyer Crane, on the deck of the "Meteor," opened his mouth. He was about to offer an opinion, but thought better of it and closed his lips.

"Mr. Crane," asked Tom, after a few moments, "what are our rights? We can take this abandoned boat in tow, can't we, and take her over to Mr.

Dunstan's pier?"

"Clearly," a.s.sented the lawyer, slowly. "And there's a right to salvage if the owner of this derelict appears and claims the boat."

Tom clambered back aboard the "Meteor," and, going aft, threw a line to Jed, who made fast around a b.u.t.t at the bow of the launch. Then Jed came back.

"Now, Mr. Crane," smiled Captain Tom, "we are again at your orders.

Unless you think of something better, we can keep on to Nantucket."

"Decidedly," replied the lawyer. "We must acquaint Mr. Dunstan with this whole prepos-unaccountable story."

As soon as the "Meteor" was well under way, on her homeward course, Halstead called down:

"Joe, I've stood this drenched clothing as long as I think is good for me in this sea wind. Take the wheel, please, and I'll go below and get a rub and some dry clothing."

"I'm going down with you," broke in Jed. "There's hot water, and you ought to have some coffee."

Jed even helped vigorously in the rub-down. Tom's teeth were chattering at the outset, but the friction warmed his blood. He put on dry clothing, of which he had enough aboard. And now Jed came out of the galley with a cup of steaming coffee.

"Say, Jed, what made you look so skittish when you boarded that other boat?" asked the young skipper, smiling. "Were you really afraid?"

"Afraid?" repeated Jed, looking sheepish. "Well, Tom, I'll tell you how it is. When there's no danger near, and I'm thinking over brave deeds, I'm a regular hero, and no mistake. But when I get right down where I think some one may be a going to open on me with both barrels of a shotgun, then I get-well, I won't say afraid, but tormentingly nervous!"

Halstead laughed heartily.

"I guess that's the way with the whole human race, Jed. The man who lugs off the reputation for being brave is the man who won't run, because he is ashamed to let anyone see how mortally afraid he is."

"But what do you make of Ted Dunstan's queer talk?" asked Jed Prentiss.

"Do you believe his father really did give him orders to go off with that crowd?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Halstead answered. "Mr. Dunstan is our employer."

"But young Ted always has been a mighty truthful boy," pursued Jed, wonderingly. "Oh, it's all mighty queer, whatever's the truth."

"I guess we'd better let it go at that last statement," proposed Tom; "at least, until we've heard what Mr. Dunstan has to say."

With three or four caps of coffee down, Halstead felt so much warmer that he returned to deck to take the wheel. The "Meteor" was necessarily going much more slowly than usual, with her tow astern. The trip was bound to be such a long one that Jed started things in the galley, then went back through the pa.s.sageway to the cabin, where he set the folding table with a white cloth. When Lawyer Crane seated himself at supper he was astonished to find how excellent a meal could be prepared in short time aboard this craft.

It was nearing dark when Captain Halstead guided the "Meteor" in toward the Dunstan pier.

While the boat was being made fast by Joe and Jed, Mr. Crane stepped hurriedly ash.o.r.e.

"Come along, Captain Halstead," said the man of law. "Mr. Dunstan must hear your remarkable story without a moment's delay."

CHAPTER XI-WHERE THE WATER TRAIL ENDED

Horace Dunstan, pausing in his excited walk in his library, stopped and stared in amazement when Tom came to one point of his strange recital.

"Ted said I gave him instructions to go with that crowd?" he demanded.

"He made that point extremely plain to me, sir," Halstead insisted.

"But I-I never gave him any such instructions," cried Mr. Dunstan, rumpling his hair.

"It seemed unbelievable, sir. And yet your son struck me as a truthful boy."

"He is; he always was," retorted the father. "Ted hated a lie or a liar, and yet this statement is wholly outside of the truth. I a.s.sure you--"

"If you'll permit me, sir," broke in the lawyer, who had been listening silently up to this point, "I'll indicate one or two points at which young Halstead's most remarkable--"

"Crane," broke in the master of the house, with unlooked-for sternness, "if you're about to throw any doubt around Tom Halstead's story, I may as well tell you plainly that you're going a little too far. Halstead has been most thoroughly vouched for to me. If you have any notion in your mind that he has been yarning to us, I beg you to let the idea remain in your mind. I don't want to hear it."

"Hm!" said the lawyer, and subsided.