rt Angeles, a craft which the boat-builder guaranteed in the
contract would beat the boat he had built for the Italian.

"Keeping in close touch is everything in this business," Dickie
observed. "Fish come in bunches. The ocean's spotted like a
checker-board. You may have one boat loading up and another right around
the next point doing nothing. That's where Mascola wins out," she
exclaimed. "He scouts round and tips his fleet off if you've anything
good. Then they're down on you like a flock of gulls."

Before they caught up with the stragglers of the cannery fleet they
sighted the alien fishing-boats coming in their direction. Dickie's brow
was overcast.

"Just what I was afraid of," she cried. "He's tipped them off. We're
going to lose a lot to-day on account of not being able to keep closer
together and being shy on a fast boat. You might as well get the idea of
filling that albacore order out of your head right now."

As they overhauled the cannery boats and headed them back to the seal
rocks, Gregory considered the girl's words about keeping in closer
touch. If he was going to beat Mascola, he'd have to get there first.
The speed-launch which Barrows was building for him would serve as a
signal boat, but even that would not serve to keep the other boats in
constant touch with one another. Before they reached the last of the
available boats they met Mascola coming back. While the girl stormed at
their helplessness to cope with the situation, Gregory spoke in
monosyllables and wrestled with his problem.

He considered the methods of communication employed by the army in
connecting the various units. One by one he discarded them. The
semaphore would serve only for short distances and then only when the
boats were within sight of each other. The same argument would apply
against the wig-wag. The heliograph would be useless in stormy weather
or in fog. A fast launch would help out, but even that would not
completely solve the difficulty. How did boats keep in touch with one
another? The answer came at once. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

When they came in sight of the seal rocks they saw the masts of the two
fleets clustered thickly about the _Albatross_.

"Look at that," snapped the girl. "Now, maybe you'll believe I know what
I'm talking about. We were asleep and Mascola's beat us to it. It won't
take him long to fish them out with an outfit like that. He's got our
boats on the outside now, taking what's