igures of the
beach-masters, and the idle bulls in the background.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

"Row-boat hasn't much chance against a launch, has it?"

"Oh, I see now," Colin said understandingly; "you covered the water with
another party."

"In a very swift gasoline launch we have. While you were waking the
village, I got a wireless to a revenue cutter. I caught her at less than
fifteen miles away, and she's headed here now."

He turned to the Japanese.

"What is your ship? Schooner or steamer?" he asked.

"Schooner," was the reply.

The agent rubbed his hands delightedly.

"It's a clean haul," he said. "Thanks to you, Hank. Principally. To the
boy, too! We've caught six men red-handed right on the rookery, with
dead seals, most of them females. The launch ought to intercept the
boat. There's not wind enough for a schooner to get far away by the time
the revenue cutter arrives. Besides, the schooner will be short-handed
since we have six of the crew here."

A sudden puff of wind lifted the fog still further and revealed the
schooner herself, lying not far from shore. A row-boat was about one
hundred and fifty feet from the vessel and the station launch was two
hundred feet away, approaching from a different angle, but outspeeding
the row-boat.

"A race!" cried Colin.

It was a closer race than at first appeared. Under the strange light of
the full moon shining grayly through the silvering mist upon the seals
in their countless thousands, the scene seemed most unreal. Before him
appeared the principals in this dramatic encounter, revolvers and rifles
in the hands of all parties, the Japs being still covered; while beyond,
at sea, the two boats cleaving the water, their objective point the
shadowy schooner, looking like a phantom ship, made a picture of weird
excitement in an unearthly setting. The seconds seemed like hours. The
row-boat was nearer the schooner and was traveling fast, but the launch
was speeding even more rapidly, throwing up a high wave at the bow. It
looked as though both boats would reach the schooner's side at the same
instant.

"She'll do it! She'll do it!" the boy exclaimed. "If only an oar would
smash!"

The Japanese, though not saying a word, were bending forward eagerly,
watching the race with every nerve on the strain.

Colin fairly danced with excitement, nearly bringing down on himself the
wrath of a neighboring sea-catch, who was roaring angrily at thi