fended," the hunter
said, "and the nurse here will tell you that sick persons ought to be
humored. Hadn't they?" and he appealed to the pretty young woman, who
was smiling at Tom.

"That's perfectly true," she said, showing her white, even teeth. "I
think, Mr. Swift, I shall have to order you to take them."

"All right," agreed Tom, "only it's too much for what I did."

"It isn't half enough," remarked Mr. Duncan solemnly. "Just explain
matters to my wife, if you will, and tell her the doctor says I can be
out in about a week. But I'm not going hunting or practicing shots
again."

A little later Tom, with the compass before him to guide him on his
course through the fog, was speeding his boat toward Waterford. Now
and then he glanced at the fine shotgun which he had so unexpectedly
acquired.

"This will come in dandy this fall!" he exclaimed. "I'll go hunting
quail and partridge as well as wild ducks. This compass is just what I
need, too."

Mrs. Duncan was at first very much alarmed when Tom started to tell her
of the accident, but she soon calmed down as the lad went more into
details and stated how comparatively out of danger her husband now was.
The hunter's wife insisted that Tom remain to dinner, and as he had
made up his mind he would have to devote two days instead of one to the
trip to his house, he consented.

The fog lifted that afternoon, and Tom, rejoicing in the sunlight,
which drove away the storm clouds, speeded up the ARROW until she was
skimming over the lake like a shaft from a bow.

"This is something like," he exclaimed. "I'll soon be at home, find
everything all right and telephone to dad. Then I'll sleep in my own
room and start back in the morning."

When Tom was within a few miles of his own boathouse he heard behind
him the "put-put" of a motor craft. Turning, he saw the RED STREAK
fairly flying along at some distance from him.

"Andy certainly is getting the speed out of her now," he remarked.
"He'd beat me if we were racing, but the trouble with his boat and
engine is that he can't always depend on it. I guess he doesn't
understand how to run it. I wonder if he'll offer to race now?"

But the red-haired owner of the auto boat evidently did not intend to
offer Tom a race. The RED STREAK went on down the lake, passing the
ARROW about half a mile away. Then the young inventor saw that Andy
had two other lads in the boat with him.

"Sam Snedecker and Pete Bailey,