e the double anchors. Captain Steele was a great man at the
academy already, and he did not need any more glory; but Harry did. It
might be a point in his favor at the next examination. He kept the yacht
sailing back and forth, as close to the entrance to the channel as he
dared to go, ready at an instant's warning to intercept the pirate
captain; but he never came. Somebody else came, however. It was the
midshipman with his company of small-armed men. He had built a bridge in
ten minutes after Tom destroyed the other, and led his men at a reckless
pace down the path into the cove, only to find it deserted. He met no
desperate Crusoe band, drawn up in battle array, to dispute his advance.
There was the cabin they had occupied, and a few useless articles they
had left scattered about, but nothing was to be seen of them or their
vessel.

"They are captured now," exclaimed the midshipman, joyfully. "They have
put out to sea again, and I expect they are in Harry Green's clutches by
this time."

Richardson frantically searched every nook and corner of the cove, to
satisfy himself that the pirates had really abandoned their harboring
place, and then returned with his men to the top of the cliff, and led
them toward the yacht. The young tars went pell-mell down the bank,
falling over rocks and logs, and scrambling through bushes, that made
sad work with their new uniforms. They expected to find the crews of the
two vessels engaged in a desperate fight; and fearing that Harry, with
his small force, might get the worst of the encounter, they were in a
great hurry to reach the sloop. A minute's delay on their part might
give the pirates time to beat off the boarding party and escape.
Breathless and excited, Richardson halted on the bank, and there was the
yacht, sailing tranquilly back and forth, and not another vessel in
sight.

"Storm King, ahoy!" yelled the midshipman, utterly amazed, and wondering
what sort of a craft the Sweepstakes was, anyhow, that she could slip
out of a narrow channel under the very noses of so many watchful
students. "Where is she, sir?"

"Whom do you mean?" asked the first lieutenant, beginning to feel uneasy
at once.

"The schooner. She has left the cove. Didn't you see her when she went
by you, sir?"

Harry understood from this that the Sweepstakes had again escaped. She
certainly had not run past him, as the midshipman had intimated; the
Crusoe men could not have taken her out of the cove an