the boat, and she darted ahead like a bird. He tested the
steering gear and it worked perfectly.

"Capital!" cried Fred delightedly.

"Hurrah!" echoed Teddy.

"She's a pippin!" exclaimed Bill enthusiastically.

Ross flushed with pleasure at the praise of his craft.

"Well," he called, "I owe it all to you fellows that I'm on board of her
to-day. I hope you'll never get into similar trouble, but if you do, I
only hope that I'm on hand to help you out."

Their courses lay in opposite directions and amid a chorus of good
wishes and hand wavings they rapidly drew apart.

"Well!" remarked Teddy, drawing a long breath when they were out of ear
shot, "this has been an adventure with a great big A."

"Who'd ever have thought when we started out yesterday that we'd run
across anything like this?" added Fred, as he settled down with his hand
on the sheet.

"That's the beauty of the sea," remarked Lester, as he brought his boat
up a little more into the wind. "On the land, things jog along steadily
and there aren't so many surprises. But at sea, anything can happen. You
never know what's going to turn up."

"I don't know about that," replied Bill, moved to a defence of his
beloved prairies. "Plenty of unexpected things turn up on land too. I
guess Fred and Teddy didn't find things very tame out at the ranch this
summer."

"We surely did not!" returned Fred. "What with ghosts and rattlesnakes
and bears and cattle rustlers, we didn't find time hanging heavy on our
hands."

"Not so that you could notice it," chuckled Teddy.

"Of course there are exceptions," admitted Lester, "but I was speaking
in a general way. My father was a sailor and the sea is in my blood. I
never get tired of it and I'm always finding in it something new and
exciting."

"How do you like our new friend?" asked Fred.

"Fine," said Teddy promptly.

"All to the good," was Bill's verdict.

"He seems to be the real thing," agreed Lester.

"He's certainly had hard luck," said Fred. "If his father had been able
to carry through his plans, life would be a mighty different thing to
Ross from what it is."

"It must be an awful strain on a fellow to be on a still hunt like his,"
mused Bill.

"Yes, and with so little to work on," chimed in Teddy. "If he had
anything definite to go on, like a map or a letter or a confession, it
would be another thing. But he seems to be relying altogether on chance
and the ravings of his father. And a crazy man ma