thout
overheating everything," Dawson replied, seriously. "Honestly, Tom, if
this speed doesn't suit, I'm afraid we'll have to make the best of
it."

"Then don't lose a single inch by bad steering, Hank," Halstead
directed, looking around at his helmsman. "Whenever you want relief,
let me know."

For five miles the drab seventy-footer kept her lead, though she did
not seem able to increase it. That craft was still heading shoreward,
and now the low, long, hazy line of the coast was in sight, becoming
every minute more plain.

"They're going to head straight for the shore, unless they've some
slicker trick hidden up their sleeves," declared Tom Halstead.

"I wonder that they're running so hard from us," mused Powell Seaton.

"Most likely, sir," responded the young skipper, "because Dalton and
Lemly believe we have officers aboard. Of course they know--or
suspect--that warrants are out charging them with stealing the
'Restless' the other night."

"Suppose Dalton and Lemly are not aboard that boat?" challenged Mr.
Seaton, suddenly.

Tom Halstead's lower jaw sagged for just an instant.

"Of course, there's that chance. We may have been fooled, and we may
be chasing a straw man in a paper boat right at this minute, sir. Yet,
if Dalton were out on the water, with his stolen papers, he'd want to
get nowhere else but to Brazil. If he isn't on the water, then he's
not trying this route to your Brazilian enemies, and we might as well
be out here as on Lonely Island."

As the boat in the lead neared the coast Halstead again kept the
marine glass to his eyes.

"There's a little river over yonder," he observed.

"Yes; I know the stream. Hardly more than a creek," replied Mr.
Seaton.

"Any deep water there, sir?"

"For only a very little way in. Then the stream moves over a pebbly
bottom like a running brook."

"Then it looks, sir, as though Lemly--if he's aboard--plans to run in
there and hustle ashore."

"Or else stay and fight," hinted Powell Seaton. "The place is lonely
enough for a fight, if the rascals dare try it."

"Hepton!" summoned Halstead, a few moments later. "Don't you think
you'd better get up your rifle? You don't need to show it, but someone
may send us a shot or two from the drab boat."

Hepton sprang below, bringing up both rifles. Crouching behind the
forward deck-house, he examined the magazines of both weapons.

"We're carrying load enough for a squad o' infantry," laughed Hepton,
showi