"The _Flyaway_? What sort of a looking craft is she?"

"I can't tell you that."

"One boat there attracted my attention," said Martin Harris slowly. "I saw two boys and a girl on board of her."

"How was the girl dressed?" cried d.i.c.k.

"She had on a light-blue dress and a sailor hat."

"And the boys?"

"One was dressed in gray and the other in dark-blue or black."

"That was the boat! Where did she go?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed d.i.c.k, who remembered well how Mumps and Baxter had been attired, and the pretty dress and hat Dora was in the habit of wearing.

"She was bound straight down the river."

"We must follow her."

"That's the talk!" burst out Tom. "But how?"

"What do you want to follow the _Flyaway_ for?" asked Martin Harris curiously.

"Those two boys are running away with that girl!"

"Impossible!"

"No, it isn't. One of the fellows--the fellow in dark clothing--is the chap who ran into us that day."

"Well, now, do you know I thought it looked like him," was Harris' comment. "And, come to think of it, that boat got as far away from me as she could."

"Do you think you would know her again? I mean the _Flyaway_--if we got anywhere near her?" asked d.i.c.k.

"I think I would, lad. She had a rather dirty mainsail and jib, and each had a new patch of white near the top. Then, too, her rig is a little different from what we have around here. Looked like a Southern boat."

"Have you your boat handy?"

"Yes, she's right at the end of this street. Do you want me to follow up that crowd?"

"Could your boat catch the _Flyaway_, do you think?"

"My boat, the _Searchlight_, is as good a yacht as there is anywhere around, if I do say it myself," answered Martin Harris promptly. "It you don't believe it, try her and see."

"We will try her," came promptly from d.i.c.k. "And the sooner you begin the chase the better it will suit me."

"All right; we'll start as soon as I've swallowed this coffee,"

answered the skipper of the _Searchlight_. "But, hold on, this may prove a long search."

"Do you want to make terms?"

"I wasn't thinking of that. I'll leave it to you as to what the job is worth, after we're done. I was thinking that I haven't any provender aboard my yacht, if we want to stay out any length of time."

"I'll fix that," answered d.i.c.k. "Come, Sam. You say the yacht is at the foot of the street?"

"Yes."

"We'll be there in less than five minutes."

"Where are you going--to buy provisions?"

"Yes."

d.i.c.k made off, followed not only by Sam, but likewise by Tom. He found a large grocery close at hand, and here purchased some coffee, sugar, canned meat and fish, a small quant.i.ty of vegetables, and also several loaves of bread and some salt. To this Tom added a box of crackers and Sam some cake and fruit, and with their arms loaded down they hurried to the _Searchlight_.

Martin Harris was on hand, and ready to cast off. "Hullo, you did lay in some things?" he grinned. "I reckon you calculate this chase to last some time."

"We've got enough for several days, anyway--that is, all but--water,"

returned d.i.c.k.

"I've got a whole barrel full of that forward, lad."

"Then we are ready to leave. I hope, though, we run the _Flyaway_ down before noon," concluded the elder Rover, as he hopped on board.

Leaving Sam to stow away the stores as he saw fit, d.i.c.k and Tom sprang in to a.s.sist Martin Harris, and soon the mainsail and jib were set, and they turned away from the dock and began the journey down the Hudson. As soon as they were clear of the other boats, the skipper set his topsail and flying jib, and they bowled along at a merry gait, the wind being very nearly in their favor and neither too strong nor too slack.

"Now I'd like to hear the particulars of this case," remarked Martin Harris, as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at the tiller. "You see, I want to know just what I am doing. I don't want to get into any trouble with the law."

"You won't get into any trouble. n.o.body has a right to run off with a girl against her will," replied d.i.c.k.

"That's true. But why are they running off with her?"

"I think they have been hired to do it by a man who wants to marry the girl's mother," went on d.i.c.k, and related the particulars of what had occurred.

Martin Harris was deeply interested. "I reckon you have the best end of it," he said, when the youth had finished. "And you say this Dan Baxter is a son of the rascal who is suspected of robbing Rush & Wilder?"

"Yes."

"Evidently a hard crowd."

"You are right--and they ought all of them to be in prison,"

observed Tom. "By the way, have they heard anything of those robbers?"

"The detectives are following up one or two clues. One report was that this Baxter and Girk had gone to some place on Staten Island. But I don't think they know for certain."

CHAPTER XVII