Club boys. Then the hoarse whistle of the "Glide" sounded, and the
freighter began to go ahead at half-speed.

The "Restless" fell away and astern, yet she followed the freighter.
That she should do so had been understood with Captain Rawley, and
with Dick and Ab. Powell Seaton intended to keep the "Glide" within
sight for at least thirty-six hours, if possible, in order to make
sure that the seventy-foot drab boat did not attempt to put Anson
Dalton or any other messenger on board.

"If we stick to the sea for a hundred years, Joe," laughed Skipper
Tom, as he followed the bigger craft at a distance of eight hundred
feet, "nothing as lucky as this is likely to happen again. I was
afraid I was booked for Rio, for sure, and it made me heartsick to
think of leaving the 'Restless' so long and living aboard a big tub of
an ordinary, steam-propelled ship!"

"I've taken the step, now, and can't very well change it," declared
Mr. Seaton, who looked both pale and thoughtful. "Halstead, all I can
hope and pray for is that your comrades on the ship ahead are as
clever and watchful, as brave and honest as you think."

"If wondering about Dick and Ab is all that ever worries me," laughed
Tom Halstead, easily, "I don't believe I shall ever have any wrinkles.
I know those boys, Mr. Seaton. We were born and raised in the same
little Maine seacoast town, and I'd trust that pair with the errand if
it were my own diamond field at stake."

The fog had lifted sufficiently, by this time, so that clear vision
was to be had for at least a quarter of a mile.

Skipper Tom whistled as he handled the wheel. Joe Dawson was so
relieved in mind that, after a careful look at the motors, he threw
himself upon one of the berths opposite and dozed. Hank put in his
time looking after preparations for supper.

"What ails you, Halstead?" demanded Seaton, pausing abruptly beside
the young skipper.

For the boy had turned, suddenly, to a sickly pallor.

"It has just struck me, sir," confessed the young motor boat skipper,
"that, if Dalton has the slightest suspicion of what we've done to
outwit him, he's just the man who will be desperate enough to put his
whole set of papers in at the nearest cable office for direct sending
to Rio Janeiro!"

CHAPTER XIX

HELPLESS IN THE NORTHEASTER!

"I've already thought of that," nodded Powell Seaton.

"And it doesn't worry you, sir--doesn't make you anxious?" questioned
Captain Tom Halstead.

"N