d George. "Frank has landed the
provisions long before this."

"I know it; but still I wish we could have beaten them."

"What do you think now, Harry?" asked Charles, whose boat was
following close in the wake of the Alert.

"I think we are done for."

And, as Harry "luffed in the wind," George drew down the sails, and
gave up the struggle.

In a moment the little fleet closed about the smuggler, and, to
prevent accident, the sails were all hauled down, and the boats lay
motionless on the water.

"I tell you," said Charles, "you fellows worked it pretty well."

"Yes," answered George, as if a little crest-fallen at their defeat.
"We did the best we could."

"I thought we had more provisions than this," said one of the captains
of the squadron, pulling his boat alongside of the Alert. "I didn't
think you could get them all in here."

And he pulled up the covering, and looked under it.

"They are packed in tight, you see," said Harry, who wished to keep up
the "sell," as he called it, as long as possible.

"What are in these bags?" inquired one.

"Shavings," answered George. "We thought we might want to kindle a
fire for something."

"I say, George," said James Porter, standing up in his boat to get a
good view of the things in the Alert. "I wish you would feel in my
basket, and get a cup that is in there, and pass it over this way. I'm
thirsty. I was so excited," he continued, taking off his hat and
wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "that I sweat as if I had
been dumped in the river. There isn't a dry rag on me."

"Which is your basket?" inquired Harry, struggling hard to suppress a
laugh.

"It's a brown basket, with a white cover," answered James.

George and Harry were too full of laughter to trust themselves to
speak; but Charles exclaimed, as he drew aside the covering,

"There's no brown basket here."

"There ought to be," said one of the coast-guards; "I brought my
things in a brown basket."

"So did I," exclaimed another.

"There's a cheat somewhere," said James.

"You haven't done as you agreed," said Charles. "You promised to carry
all the things in one boat."

"Yes, that's what you agreed to do," shouted several.

"And we've kept our promise," said Harry.

"Then, where's _my_ basket?" inquired one of the boys, who had failed
to discover it among the things in the Alert.

"I'll bet the Champion carried some of the provisions over," said
another, "for there are not half