Keep a sharp eye on strange-looking craft, will you?"

"Aye, aye!" responded the _Arrow's_ captain, little knowing into what
adventures this pursuit of smugglers would lead him and his crew.

In a few minutes the _Petrel_ had swung about and was heading in the
direction from which the _Esperanza_ had appeared. The _Arrow_ was
left becalmed and drifting on the heavy swells of the Gulf; but her
crew, excited by the prospect of encountering freebooters of the main,
forgot to be seasick, even if they had been so inclined, and fell to
preparing their noonday meal.

Vinton tilted his cap over his left eye and surveyed the trim _Arrow_
with frank satisfaction, at the conclusion of their repast.

"All shipshape, boys? Good! Reckon I'll let one of you steer awhile,
and hit my bunk for an hour or two. There'll be wind out'n the
sou'east, later on; and then I'll take charge again. All you've got
to do now is to turn her around, with her nose pointin' yonder,"---he
waved a hand toward the distant Sanibel Islands that stretch along
the coast south of Charlotte Harbor,---"and take 'vantage of every
puff of wind that you can use for tackin'. Understand?"

They signified their readiness to manage the sloop, once she had gone
well beyond any reefs or bars, and they drew lots to see who should
be first to take the captain's place while he rested. The draw,
fell to Chester and he took charge of the helm. Alec came next,
then Billy took his turn, and finally Hugh. While one steered, the
others kept a look-out for the erratic _Esperanza_, thinking it
might again appear from some unexpected quarter. Mark and Roy
Norton lounged in the bow and lazily swapped fishing stories, not at
all averse to leaving the work to the rest.

With the departure of the _Petrel_ on her return to the waters near
Snipe Point, and with a barely-perceptible rise of wind, the sloop
_Arrow_ laid a zigzag course toward the Ten Thousand Islands and
came abreast of them about five o'clock. Beyond a broad inlet that
led into the bay, a white sand beach, sparsely overgrown with
crabgrass and waving palmettos, indicated to Dave that they were
near one of his old camping places. He called Captain Vinton's
attention to it, hinting that it would be a good place to spend
the night.

"Why not aboard the sloop?" queried Vinton, though he knew perfectly
well that Dave would seek any excuse to stretch his unseaworthy limbs
on _terra firma_ in preference to tos