ow
when to look for the next Rio boat."

"If this fog seems likely to last," resumed Halstead, "I've been
thinking about increasing to ten miles and keeping right on toward New
York."

"Bully!" enthused Dawson. "Fine!"

"Yes; so I thought at first, but I have changed my mind. If we get
wholly out of these waters we might put a messenger aboard a steamship
bound for Rio Janeiro, and then Dalton, by hanging about in these
waters, might find a chance to board. If he suspected our
messenger--and it may be you or I--it might be the same old Clodis
incident all over again."

Joe's face lengthened.

"It's growing wearing, to hang about here all the time," he
complained. "I'm near to having operator's cramp, as it is."

"Don't you dare!" Skipper Tom warned him.

"Well, then, I won't," agreed Dawson.

For four hours more the "Restless" continued nearly due north, at the
same original speed of six miles an hour. Halstead began to think of
putting back, slowly retracing his course. Joe went down for his
regular hourly "sit" at the sending table.

"Hurrah!" yelled Dawson, emerging from the motor room several minutes
later.

He was waving a paper and appeared highly excited.

"Picked up anything?" called Tom Halstead, eagerly.

"Yes, sirree!" uttered Joe, delightedly, thrusting a paper into his
chum's hand. "The Jepson freight liner, 'Glide,' is making an extra
trip out of schedule. Here's her position, course and gait. We ought
to be up to her within two and a half hours."

Tom himself took the news to Powell Seaton. That gentleman, on hearing
the word, leaped from the lower berth in the port stateroom.

"Glorious!" he cried, his eyes gleaming feverishly as he hustled into
an overcoat.

Then he whispered, in a lower voice:

"Tom Halstead, you're--you're--It!"

"Eh?" demanded the young motor boat skipper.

"You'll take the papers on to Rio!"

A gleam lit up Halstead's eyes. Yet, in another instant he felt a
sense of downright regret. He was not afraid of any dangers that the
trip might involve, but he hated the thought of being weeks away from
this staunch, trim little craft of which he was captain and
half-owner.

"All right, sir," he replied, though without enthusiasm. "I'll
undertake it--I'll go to Rio for you."

CHAPTER XVII

WHEN THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB BOYS "WENT DAFFY"

All this had been spoken in whispers. Both Mr. Seaton and Tom Halstead
were keenly aware of the presence of the prisoner