ve for me, my boys!"

CHAPTER XII

THE BREAKDOWN OF THE MOTOR

"Say! he's going off, dead sure!" exclaimed Will, in distress.

"He certainly seems to be having a free ride out to sea," remarked Frank.

"But that little craft will upset, and let him drown, Frank! Can't you
stop him from such mad capers?" continued the other.

Frank put his hands up to his mouth in such fashion that they formed a
sort of megaphone, and allowed his voice to carry far.

"I say, Jerry!" he bawled.

"Hello!" came faintly from the onrushing fisherman, who was sitting in
such fashion as to properly balance his small pumpkin-seed-shaped craft
as it sped over the water, so rapidly as to leave a sheet of white foam
behind.

"Cut loose! Danger!" shouted Frank.

"Did he hear you, Frank?" asked Will anxiously.

"I guess so. Anyhow, he seems to be moving toward the bow, where his line
is fast. I hope he has a knife with him, that's all," replied Frank,
straining his eyes to see what was going on, for the sun had set, and
already dusk was just commencing to gather over the water.

"He always carries one in his fishing bag," declared Bluff, not a little
alarmed himself over this new source of danger, so utterly foreign to
anything they had ever experienced before.

"There! He's done it! Hurrah!" shouted Will in relief.

"I bet he hated to let that thing go!" said Bluff, who knew the
determined nature of the fisherman full well.

"And he's lost his line, and the hook, too," commented Will.

"That's of little consequence, for there are plenty more where they came
from. I'm glad he was sensible enough not to carry the joke too far,"
observed Frank.

Jerry came paddling slowly back. Apparently he wanted to continue his
fishing, but his good sense told him the hour was really too late.

"Talk to me about your toboggan slides! What could compare with that
jolly old dash? Peary wasn't in it with me. I've heard of boats pulled
by dolphins, but give me a shark every time for a racer. I'm only sorry I
had to cut loose so soon," he said as he came aboard.

"I see you have one mullet left, Jerry. After supper we'll get out a
couple of lines, and fish from the motor-boat. Perhaps we can pick up
a channel bass or a weakfish, which I am told they call a sea trout down
here."

"A good idea, Frank. I'll just get the lines ready while you look after
supper. Glad to see Bluff managed to find his oysters. Perhaps we'll have
a rest now, and