in the starboard
stateroom.

"You don't seem as overjoyed as I thought you might be," observed
Powell Seaton, in a tone of disappointment.

"I'm going through for you, sir, and I'll deliver the papers into the
proper hands, if I live," replied Tom Halstead.

"And you're not afraid of the big chances of danger that you may be
running?" persisted his employer.

"Why, I believe every human being has times when he's afraid," Skipper
Tom replied, honestly. "But I shan't be any more afraid than you've
seen me once or twice since this cruise began."

"Then I'll bet on your success," rejoined Mr. Seaton, holding out his
hand, which the young motor boat captain grasped.

"Suppose we go on deck where we can talk a little more safely, sir,"
whispered Tom.

They made their way above and forward.

"Any further word, Dawson?" inquired the charter-man.

"I haven't signaled since I brought up that last message," Joe
replied.

"Oh, of course not," retorted Powell Seaton. "It was an idiotic
question for me to ask, but I'm so excited, boys, that I don't pretend
to know altogether what I'm talking about."

Captain Halstead bent forward to look at the compass. He found Hank
Butts steering as straight as the needle itself pointed.

"What on earth can I do to pass the time of waiting?" wondered Mr.
Seaton, feverishly.

"Eat," laughed Tom. "You haven't had a meal since I don't know when.
Give me the wheel, Hank, and see what you can fix up for Mr. Seaton in
the way of food."

Yet, poking along at that slow rate of speed, cutting through the fog
but not able to see a boat's length ahead, proved an ordeal that
tested the patience of all.

After awhile Joe returned to the sending table, in order to get in
touch with the "Glide" and make sure that the two vessels were still
approaching each other head-on.

"It's wonderful--wonderful, this wireless telegraph that keeps all the
great ships and many of the small ones in constant communication,"
declared Powell Seaton, coming up on deck after having finished his
meal. "Yet it seems odd, doesn't it, to think of even freight boats
carrying a wireless installation?"

"Not when you stop to consider the value of the freight steamships,
and the value of their cargoes," rejoined Tom Halstead. "If a ship at
sea gets into any trouble, where in older times she would have been
lost, now all she has to do is to signal to other vessels within two
or three hundred miles, and relief is sent o