Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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The Adventure Club Afloat

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tentative hand on the cushion of the nearer seat. Steve, with grim countenance, kept his eyes on the rollers, trying his best to follow in the wake of the other boat. Here and there white water hinted at shoals and it was between two of these that the _Follow Me_ had gone. Steve eased the wheel and slowed the engine a trifle and the _Adventurer_, rocking in the long swells that were breaking on the beach hardly more than a stone-throw to port, went on. Steve was in the act of breathing a long sigh of relief when there came a jar that threw several of the boys off their balance and brought cries of consternation to their lips. For one horrid moment the _Adventurer_ hung with her propeller churning the sand, and then shook herself free and lunged forward again. Shouts of relief went up and a smile of triumph came to Steve's face as he pulled her back into the course and slipped into deeper water. The _Follow Me_ was still a good eighth of a mile ahead and swinging northward around the curve of beach. "They're going to make for Newburyport," said Steve. "Watch them try to get me into trouble now, Joe." "How do you mean?" "They're keeping in close to shore. See? Look on the chart." "I see twelve little black crosses about there. What do they mean? Oh, I get you. 'Emerson Rocks,' eh? But I don't see them!" "No, they're sunken. The _Follow Me's_ running as near them as she dares, hoping that we'll try to cut the corner more and strike. Those fellows know this coast as I know the inside of my hat! But we'll fool them this time!" So close to the submerged danger did the _Adventurer_ go that Perry, watching over the side, caught a glimpse of a dark mass under the green water. Then the chase straightened out once more and Steve drew the throttle wide, experimented with the spark for a moment and sent the white cruiser surging along in pursuit. There could be no doubt as to the outcome of the race. It was only a question of time. The thieves had staked all on the attempt to elude the _Adventurer_ in the shallows, and now they were doomed to open water, for Plum Island ran straight and unbroken for seven miles, and not until the entrance to Newburyport Harbour was reached was there the smallest chance to slip out of sight. Ossie announced that dinner would be ready in a few minutes, but no one paid any attention. Every eye was fixed on the _Follow Me_, which, dead ahead, was scurrying along at a rate which Tom, who had thought he knew the engine thoroughly, marvelled at. But the distance was shortening between pursued and pursuer. Off the life-saving station the fleeing craft was scarcely a hundred yards in advance, and it became more and more certain that the boats would be on even terms long before the seven-mile stretch was half traversed. Wink went below and summoned Harry Corwin down from his perch, much to the relief of Ossie, whose preparations for dinner had not been made easier by having to dive under the table every time he sought the ice-chest, and posted him at a port in the forward cabin. "If they won't give up," he explained, "we'll have to go on plugging them. I'll take it in the other cabin. Better fire first from one port then from another. That'll keep them guessing. It's just as well for them not to know that we've got only two pieces of artillery!" "All right," said Harry, "but there's no use staying here now, is there? There's nothing in sight but a sea-gull!" "No, but be ready when we get abreast, Harry. I think that gun pulls to the right a little. You might watch it." Wink returned to the deck, followed by Harry as far as the companion, and looked forward at the _Follow Me_. Since he had gone below the positions of the boats had altered noticeably, and now, had he wished, he might easily have put a bullet through the mahogany door beyond the cockpit. Steve was bearing seaward a little, intending to run up on the starboard side of the black cruiser. "I'll bet they're doing a whole lot of thinking about now," said "Brownie." "Guess I'll go down and sit on the floor again. They'll be able to plug us in another minute or so." "You'd all better beat it," said Steve. "If the bullets begin to fly again someone will get hurt." Slowly but certainly the bow of the _Adventurer_ crept up on the _Follow Me's_ stern. Some sixty feet of water divided them. Beyond the black cruiser lay the long yellow beach, dazzling in the noonday sunlight. Suddenly the _Follow Me's_ bow turned straight for the breakers and Steve gave a cry. CHAPTER XV SURRENDER "They're going to run her ashore!" shouted Steve. He slid out the clutch, throttled down the engine and swung the boat's nose to starboard as the others piled back to the deck. The _Adventurer_ swept around in a long circle while the _Follow Me_, churning the shoaling water into white froth, ran straight for the shore. "Gosh, what a mess!" groaned Harry Corwin. "We'll never get her off there!" Steve made no answer, nor did the others. They were all watching that wild rush of the black cruiser. On and on she went, rising and falling with the gentle swells, until it looked as though she must surely be churning the sand with her hurrying screw. Suddenly the cabin doors flew open and three men, one hatless and with a white towel bound around his head, leaped out and scampered along the roof to the bow. Wink raised his revolver, but Steve pulled his arm down. "Don't!" he said. "Let them go if they will." At that instant the _Follow Me_ faltered, stopped, and went on again for another yard or so as a breaking wave rushed under her keel, and then rolled over to starboard and subsided so, her propeller still beating and her stern slowly working around. Into the two feet of water dropped the trio on the bow and, keeping the _Follow Me_ between them and the enemy, scuttled to land, and then, once on the hard sand, ran as hard as their legs would take them up the beach to the north. Wink sent one shot hurtling after them, just, as he explained afterwards, to encourage them, and Steve, having cautiously edged the _Adventurer_ as near shore as he dared, gave his orders hurriedly. "Get the big cable from the rope locker, Han," he directed. "Joe, you and Harry jump into the tender and stand by here. When you get the cable pull in to the _Follow Me_ and make it fast to the stern cleat. Tom,

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