ow that coast from painful experience
and every curl of those hungry breakers was going to be imprinted on his
brain.

The _Miami_ was off Cape Canaveral when a radio message was received
that there was a derelict bark two hundred miles to the westward of
Abaco Island, the northernmost of the Bahamas. In less than three
minutes after the receipt of the message over the wireless, the captain
had been advised, the course changed and the _Miami_ was headed for the
derelict at full speed. She had been running for a little over an hour
when a second radio was received from a land station, relayed from a
steamer.

"Schooner _Marie-Rose_ reports passing water-logged vessel 23 deg. 40' N.
and 73 deg. 10' W. Signs of distress observed. _Marie-Rose_, crippled and
running before gale, could not heave to. Not known whether any one on
board."

Then the wireless began to be busy. Within twenty minutes the same
message was received from Washington, from the station at Beaufort,
N. C., from Fernandina, Fla., from Key West and from Nassau. Then by
relays from vessels on the coast, from the _Seneca_, the Coast Guard's
great derelict destroyer, far out on the Atlantic; from the _Algonquin_,
stationed at Porto Rico; from the _Onondaga_ patrolling the coast north
of Cape Hatteras and from the _Seminole_ in port at Arundel Cove
undergoing repairs, came orders from the Coast Guard Headquarters. The
_Miami_ was instructed to proceed at once to the point indicated, to
rescue survivors if such were to be found and to destroy the derelict
which was floating into the trade route and was a menace to navigation.
Meanwhile, the long harsh "buzz" of the answer sounded all over the ship
from the wireless room as the operator answered the various calls with
the information that the _Miami_ was already proceeding under full
speed.

"Van Sluyd will be sore," said Eric to Homer, as the message from the
_Seminole_ was received; "she'd be sent instead of us if she weren't in
dock. When he hears that we're going on this chase instead of his own
craft, he'll be green with envy."

"He'll get over that," said his friend; "he's under a good man. There's
very little gets by the _Seminole_ that is possible of achievement."

Dawn was breaking as the _Miami_ neared the spot indicated by the
wireless messages as the location of the derelict bark. Using this point
as a center, the navigating officer of the _Miami_ plotted a chart of
the U-shaped course which wo