"What do you lads mean by scaring off customers?" he asked.

"We didn't scare him off," answered Frank sturdily.

"What do you call it then? Wasn't he coming here to hire a sailboat
off me, and didn't you chase after him, and make him leave on the car?
Now he'll likely go to Hank Weston at Edgemere, and hire a boat off
him. I lose the trade."

"We're sorry," explained Frank, "but if you noticed that man you saw
that he ran as soon he saw us. We didn't say a word to him. He just
turned tail and sprinted."

"So I see," grumbled Mr. Hedson, "but I thought maybe you flew some
kind of a distress signal."

"We were only too anxious to talk to him," put in Andy. "But he's
afraid of us."

"Afraid; why?"

"Well, there's some mystery about him," went on Frank, "and we'd like
to discover it. It's connected with a boy whom we saved from a gale."
And he told about Paul, and how the man had hastened away that day on
the beach. "Do you know anything about him?" finished the elder Racer
lad.

"Only this," spoke the boatman, not quite so angry now. "He come to
see me yist'day, and asked if I had a sailboat I could hire out for a
few days. He said he wanted to go cruising out to sea to bring in a
boat of his that was disabled."

"A boat!" interrupted Frank eagerly. "Did he say what kind? Was it a
damaged motor boat?"

"He didn't say, and I didn't ask him. I arranged with him to take my
_Spray_ and he was to come to-day and get her. Now you see what
happened."

"We're sorry to have spoiled your business," spoke Frank regretfully,
"but perhaps it's just as well you didn't hire that man your boat. I
don't believe he's to be trusted," and he told about the suspicion they
had that the stranger had already been seen towing a disabled motor
boat with a gasolene craft.

"The question is, where has he left the damaged boat--Paul's boat?"
went on Andy. "This thing is getting more and more complicated. Why
should he want a sailboat to go out and tow in the motor craft, when he
was seen in power vessel yesterday?"

"Maybe whoever owned the power vessel took it away from him," suggested
Frank.

"I wouldn't wonder but what you're right!" exclaimed Jim Hedson,
slapping his big pain down on his broad leg. "Now I think of it, I
didn't like the looks of that man. He wouldn't look you square in the
eye, but kept shifting around. I'm just as glad I didn't hire him my
_Spray_, and I'm sorry I took you fellows up so sh