tor-boat glided smoothly out from the dock to which it
had been made fast. Behind it the water boiled as if it had been
stirred by some invisible furnace. The graceful lines of the boat, its
manifest power and speed, formed a fitting complement to the bright
sunshine and clear air which rested over the waters of the Hudson River.

On the dock, which the Black Growler was leaving so rapidly behind her,
were assembled various members of the families represented by the four
boys on board the motor-boat. Younger brothers and sisters, two uncles,
several aunts, not to mention the various fathers and mothers united in
a final word of farewell. Handkerchiefs were waved and the sounds of
the last faint call came across the intervening waters.

The Black Growler was leaving Yonkers to be gone more than a month. The
trip was one to which the Go Ahead boys had looked forward with
steadily increasing interest.

In the first place the boat belonged to Fred Button, one of the
quartet. Fred now was at the wheel and the expression of pride on his
face as he occasionally glanced behind him at his companions was one
that indicated something of the feeling in his heart. And indeed there
was a substantial basis for Fred's pride. Among the many boats on the
river the Black Growler moved as if she belonged in a class of her own.
People on board the cat boats or yachts, and even the passengers on a
great passing steamer, all stood looking with manifest interest at the
dark-colored little boat which was speeding over the waters almost like
a thing alive.

Fred Button, the owner and present pilot of the swift motor-boat was
the smallest, or at least the shortest, of the four boys. His age was
the same as that of his companions, all of whom were about seventeen.
His round body and rounder face were evidences that in time what Fred
lacked in length he might provide in breadth. Among his companions he
was a great favorite and frequently was called by one of the several
nicknames which his comrades had bestowed upon him. Peewee or Pygmy,
the latter sometimes shortened to Pyg, were names to which he answered
almost as readily as to his Christian name.

His most intimate friend of the four was John Clemens, whose nickname,
"String," indicated what his physique was. He was six feet three inches
in height, although his weight was not much more than that of the more
diminutive Fred. "The long and the short of it" the two boys sometimes
were called