ng his strong, white teeth. "Let those fellers on the Drab try
it, if they want to see what we've got."

The seventy-footer was shutting off speed now, going slowly into the
mouth of the little river. Almost immediately afterwards her reverse
was applied, after which she swung at anchor.

Tom, too, without a word to Hank, who stood by the wheel, reached
over, slowing the "Restless" down to a gait of something like eight
miles an hour.

"What's the order, sir?" he asked, turning to Mr. Seaton. "Are we to
go in and anchor alongside?"

"I--I don't want to run you young men into any too dangerous places,"
began Powell Seaton, hesitatingly. "I--I----"

"Danger's one of the things we're paid for," clicked Tom Halstead,
softly. "It'll all in the charter. Do you want to go in alongside?"

"I--I----"

Bang!

The shot came so unexpectedly that the motor boat boys jumped despite
themselves. Hepton cocked one of the rifles, and was about to rise
with it, when the young skipper of the "Restless" prodded the man
gently with one foot.

"Don't show your guns, Hepton," murmured Tom. "Wait until we find out
what that shot was meant for."

No one now appeared on board the drab seventy-footer. There had been
no smoke, no whistle of a bullet by the heads of those on the bridge
deck of the "Restless."

"That was intended only to make us nervous," grinned Captain Tom.

"Or else to show us that they have fire-arms," suggested Seaton.

"Well, sir, I'm headed to go in alongside, unless you give me other
orders," hinted the young skipper.

"Cover about half the rest of the distance, then reverse and lie to,"
decided Powell Seaton. He now had the extra pair of marine glasses,
and was attentively studying both the boat and the shore nearby.

Tom took the wheel himself, stopping where he had been directed. So
neatly was headway corrected that the "Restless" barely drifted on the
smooth water inshore.

There was now remaining less than an hour of daylight.

"I think I understand their plan, if Dalton is on board," whispered
Mr. Seaton to his young captain. "Dalton is waiting until it is dark
enough to slip ashore."

"Hm! There's one way you _could_ stop that, if you want to take all
the risk," ventured Halstead, grinning thoughtfully.

"How?"

"Well, if it's the plan of anyone aboard the drab boat to slip on
shore under cover of darkness, then I could put our tender overboard
and row Hepton to one bank of the river with his