my eyes open wherever I am, though."

"Around here?" Mollie wanted to know.

"Yes, here as well as anywhere else. But I'm on a leave of absence now.
I'm spending a few days cruising with the boys. I'll soon have to go
back to Boston."

"Well, then busy yourself and buy me those chocolates!" demanded Grace.
"You don't need to act in your official capacity for that."

"Do you really think there may be pirates or smugglers around here?"
asked Amy, who seemed strangely interested in the matter.

"Well, there might be. You never can tell," said Will, with a look
around the horizon as though to discover some mysterious and suspicious
vessel in the offing.

After Will's explanations he had to answer a hail of questions from the
girls. The boys already knew all he could tell them. Then his sister and
her chums wished him all kinds of good luck.

"And I hope we see you arrest your first smuggler!" exclaimed Mollie,
with a quick gesture of her expressive hands and shoulders.

"Oh, I don't!" cried Amy, with a nervous look behind her.

"Well, if we're going to take the girls for a ride let's do it,"
suggested Allen.

"How does the boat run?" asked Betty, as she turned her attention to it.

"Fine and dandy!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm.

A little later the merry party of young people were out on the wide,
blue waters of the bay.

Several gladsome days followed. The boys were welcomed at Edgemere, and,
as the cottage was a large one, Mrs. Nelson insisted on Will and his
chums remaining there, though they said they wanted to camp out, or
sleep aboard the _Pocohontas_. But the quarters there were rather
cramped.

One day, when the boys were coming back in the boat with the girls, the
engine suddenly stopped while they were still a short distance from the
dock.

"Hello! What's up? Trouble?" asked Roy.

"Yes, it's that magneto again," decided Allen. "I think I'd better tie
her up and get a new one. It will be giving us trouble all summer if I
don't."

And then, as the craft was ingloriously paddled up to the dock, the boys
held a mysterious conversation regarding ground-wires, brushes, platinum
points, spark plugs and batteries.

"Oh, will the boat have to go to the repair shop?" asked Betty.

"Will you be sorry?" returned Allen, meaningly.

"You know I shall. I do so enjoy--the water," she answered with a little
blush and a bright glance.

"You sha'n't miss anything," he declared. "I'll charter a sailboat wh