in, at the wheel of the _Follow Me_, lower his head to speak to his
brother in the engine room. The _Follow Me_ began to forge ahead again,
slowly but certainly.

"Give her more gas, Steve," begged Perry. "We can't have a little old
'puffing pig' of a boat like that walking away from us. Look at those
idiots grin!"

"And watch them change their faces," laughed Steve as he drew the
throttle forward another two or three notches. Under the hatches the
engine uttered a new note and a quick jarring became felt. Joe's anxiety
increased to uneasiness.

"Say, Steve, do you think--is it all right--I mean--"

"She's only doing about seventeen," replied Steve calmly. "The throttle
isn't nearly open yet. But I guess that's enough," he added as he
glanced across the water. Perry, leaning across the gunwale, beckoned
insultingly.

"Come on!" he called. "What are you stopping there for?"

The _Follow Me_ replied to the taunt, but what the reply was they didn't
know on the _Adventurer_, for the latter was ahead now by its full
length and gaining perceptibly every moment. Tom Corwin's head appeared
over the cabin roof, he took a look at the rival craft and popped from
sight again. The _Follow Me_ stopped going back and hung with her nose
abreast the _Adventurer's_ stern. Phil, who had been writing a letter in
the cabin, emerged and joined the group outside.

"How fast is she going, Steve?" he asked.

"About seventeen, I think. Still, Harry said the _Follow Me's_ best was
eighteen, and she isn't losing any, and so we may be doing eighteen,
too. Guess we might as well settle the matter right now, though."

With which he pulled the throttle to the limit, and the white cruiser,
quivering from stem to stern, forged ahead. "We're doing a good twenty
miles an hour now," shouted Steve above the hum of the motor, "and she
won't go any faster unless we get out and push!"

But twenty miles was fast enough to distance the _Follow Me_, although
that boat held on gamely all the way across the bay and only slowed down
when, a good quarter of a mile behind the _Adventurer_, she was abreast
Pelican Bar. The _Adventurer_ dropped her gait to twelve and presently
the black cruiser, having negotiated the inlet in the wake of the other
craft, drew within hailing distance and Harry Corwin called across
through the megaphone.

"Some boat, Steve!" he shouted. "We're satisfied!"

Steve waved back and the two cruisers settled down to their forty-mil