"Hullo, lobster-smack!" roared one derisive voice above the
freighter's rail.

"Say," called another voice, jeeringly, "it may be all right to go
lobster-fishing, but it's no sort of good business to leave one of
your catch of lobsters in command of even a smack like that!"

Tom Halstead reddened angrily. One of his fists clenched unconsciously
as he shot a wrathful look upward at the rail.

"Say, you mentally-dented pilot of a fourth-rate peanut roaster of a
boat, do you go by craft you know without ever giving a hail?"
demanded a mocking voice, that of the first derisive speaker.

Standing at the rail of the "Restless," Tom Halstead almost dropped
the megaphone overboard from the sheer stagger of joy that caught
him.

"Hey, you Ab! You worthless Ab Perkins!" roared the young motor boat
skipper, in huge delight. "And you, Dick Davis!"

The two who stood at the "Glide's" rail overhead, and who had called
down so mockingly, stood in uniform caps and coats identical with
those worn by Halstead and his mates aboard the motor boat. They wore
them with right, too, for Perkins and Davis were two of the most
famous of the many youngsters who now composed the Motor Boat Club of
the Kennebec.

"Hey! What's this?" roared the usually quiet Joe Dawson, his face
wreathed in smiles. He almost danced a jig.

Hank Butts had never before seen either Davis or Perkins, but he knew
about them, all right. He knew that uniform, too, the same that he
wore.

"Now, then--altogether!" yelled Hank. "Give it with a roar, boys!"

Powell Seaton stared in bewildered amazement. So did officers, crew
and others at the "Glide's" rail and on her bridge.

For five lusty young Americans, all wearing the same uniform, all
bronzed deeply with the tan that comes of the gale and the sun, all
keen-eyed, quick and sure as tars ever are, roared in mighty chorus:

"M-B-C-K! M-B-C-K! Motor Boat Club! WOW!"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FIRST KINK OF THE PROBLEM SOLVED

Again the roaring chorus rang out.

"What's this? College boys' joke on me, or a floating mad-house?"
huskily roared down the freighter's captain from the bridge.

"It's all right, captain," sang back Tom Halstead. "We'll make it
plain to you as soon as we get a chance. We're neither as bad nor as
dangerous as we seem."

The "Glide's" headway had all but ceased by this time, and the side
gangway was at last in place. The "Restless" was run in close, while
Hank stood up on th