“Hold on!” said the agent abruptly.
A dark figure had risen up before them; and as the moonlight fell upon the man Jack saw that it was in truth the Indian guide who had been with the “professor” in the noisy motor boat.
“Did you get him, Josh?” demanded the employer, eagerly.
“He lies under hemlock, tied hand and foot. No danger he get away,” came the confident reply.
“All right,” said the other. “Come along with me, John. These boys will guard the cabin and not let any one steal the hidden goods. We have other work cut out for us. We want to get our hands on that head man, Glenwood. So long as he is at large there can be no peace on the border.”
Great was the astonishment of the five boys when Jack and his companions made their appearance on the shore, and the former called to have the small boats pushed in, so that they might come aboard.
“Jack, what’s all this mean?” asked George, greatly excited.
“Can’t tell you everything just now, fellows,” the other replied. “This gentleman is a government revenue agent, and he’s on the track of a band of smugglers who have been using this island as a place to land goods brought over from Canada. He captured three, but the leader got away. George, he wants to borrow your boat.”
“What?” gasped the other, astounded beyond measure.
“He and his man and myself will go with you, Josh changing over,” Jack continued. “While we’re gone the rest of you keep on the watch and don’t let anybody come aboard, no matter who he is. These scoundrels have captured the Flash.”
“Now, what d’ye know about that?” exclaimed Nick, as he helped Josh over the side of the big Comfort, so as to make room for the others who were to go in the speed boat.
“But George, you haven’t said yet whether you are willing to chase the Flash, and try to overtake her?” said the energetic agent.
“Sure I am,” came the ready response; “and I believe we can get her, if nothing happens to my motor. I’ve had some hard luck with it when I tried to push the thing to the limit. But tumble in here, and we’ll be off.”
George was trembling with delightful anticipations. If anything in all the world appealed to him it was a race. None of the others had the same feeling, and, like Jack, they preferred comfort in a boat beyond speed, though none were averse to making good time.
Everybody wanted to help, and as many hands make light work, the Wireless was in condition to start almost as soon as the two men climbed aboard.
“Sit as near the middle as you can, please, to balance her,” the others heard the skipper say, as she shot away.
“Yes,” called out Nick, derisively, “and be sure your hair is parted in the middle, or it’s all up with you. I know, because I was there for some four weeks.”
“Which way, sir?” asked George, wisely paying no attention to this shout, which, after all, was Nick’s only method for getting even, after all the agony he had endured in that cranky narrow motor boat.
“Turn to port, and head for the upper part of the island. We haven’t wasted much time, and I hope to discover that boat somewhere,” replied the agent.
“If we do,” said George, with firmness, “make up your mind the good old Wireless is going to hang on like a bulldog till she cuts down the lead, and overhauls that Flash. Always said she had the look of a pirate, and others thought the same thing, it seems, since those men picked her out as the boat they could use.”
“Just think of Clarence and Joe being in their hands all this time,” remarked Jack, as they tore through the water. “Must seem like a pretty tough vacation for those boys, all right.”
“Oh! I don’t suppose Glenwood has really harmed them,” said the agent; “but he’s a hard man to deal with; and unless they knuckled down to him perhaps they’ve felt his fist before now. I’m hoping that, perhaps, when Clarence sees who is after him he may find some way to slow down and let us overhaul him.”
George only laughed at this and remarked:
“That’s because you don’t know Clarence, sir. He hates me like poison, and sooner than have me beat him with my boat I believe he’d take the chances of staying in the power of those smugglers for a month. Oh! no, when he sees who is after him he’ll put things at top-notch speed, and try every trick he knows how to win out. But I’m not afraid, if only things go right with my engine.”
“Look yonder!” cried the eagle-eyed agent just then, the Indian having pulled his coat sleeve and pointed ahead.
“Say, that’s her, as sure as fate!” cried George, as he altered the course of his own boat a little.
“And they know we’re after them, too,” remarked Jack.
“Then the race is on; and good luck attend the better boat,” said the government agent, coolly taking out a cigar, biting off the end, and proceeding to apply a lighted match to the same.
They were fairly flying through the water. On either side the waves parted, and rolled over smothered in foam; while in their wake a roller kept following close on their heels.
“Twenty miles if anything?” the gentleman guessed.
“More than that, sir,” replied the skipper, proudly; “but she can do better still. I’ve got another notch to let out if I have to. Don’t want to take the chances unless it’s positively necessary; because you see the quivering rattles her so much. Are we holding our own, do you think, Jack?”
“I am sure of that,” came the reply. “And if you asked me again I’d say we are gaining a little all the while.”
“Bully old Wireless!” exclaimed George, his voice filled with pride. “She can do the stunt all right if only something don’t happen to throw us out of our gear. She’s a wonder, that’s what, and I’ve always said so. Talk about sprinting, did you ever go as fast as this in a small boat, sir?”
“I certainly never have,” replied the government agent; and from the way he was staggering around, clutching hold of every object that promised to keep him erect, it looked as though he might just as well have added: “and Heaven deliver me from ever experiencing it again.”
“Everybody keep a sharp lookout for rocks or anything of the sort,” said George; “because those men must know this region like a book, and it would be just like ’em to lead us in a trap, so we’d be wrecked.”
“Yes, you’re correct there, George,” observed the agent, “and I give you credit for having a long head. That’s the kind of chaps you’re up against right now, full of trickery; desperate men, whose one idea is escape.”
“This moonlight is all right as long as the other boat isn’t any further away than she is,” remarked George a minute or two later.
“I’m sorry to state that you can’t count on the candle up in the sky much longer,” remarked the gentleman; “for there is a suspicious bank of black clouds hovering near, and at any time she’s apt to be eclipsed.”
“All right,” and George laughed a bit hysterically, since he was laboring under so great a strain of excitement. “Jack, would you mind attending to my searchlight. Then we’ll be ready for the trouble when she comes.”
And a couple of minutes later, when the dark mask did cover the face of the moon, a long vivid white gleam reached out from the brass searchlight on the forward deck of the quivering speed boat. It widened as it extended in the distance; and plainly seen was the flitting craft they pursued. The position of the Flash could be detected better by means of the white foam-tipped waves thrown aside by her swift passage, rather than by viewing the boat itself.
“That’s splendid!” remarked the government agent, as he looked along this lane of illumination, and watched the desperate struggles of the Flash to outrun her determined pursuers.
“Still picking up on her, ain’t we, Jack?” asked George, after a little.
“No doubt about that, I think,” came the reply. “And I guess you were right when you declared the good old Wireless was the better boat. She can certainly walk over the water some. I would enjoy this more if it was day-time.”
“I guess we all would,” laughed the gentleman, still gripping hold of the brass rail to make sure he might not be plunged overboard should anything suddenly go wrong.
“If only the engine behaves half-way decent,” sighed George. “She’s doing nobly right now, though, ain’t she, Jack? But I hope they don’t toll us in among the rocks. If we ever come slap up against one at this rate there’s going to be some high vaulting, I tell you. Whew! did you see that one sticking out of the water? I just swerved in time, though. Keep watching, everybody, and tell me quick if you see anything ugly ahead!”
Their pace was not abated a particle, even though George knew that new perils were strewn in their course. If that other boat ahead could speed through this same tortuous channel he believed he dared take the same chances. And George had always been reckoned a daring boy by his schoolmates, in football games or on the diamond; so that this venturesome spirit was no new freak on his part.
It was only by the greatest effort that he refrained from throwing on the last atom of speed, and hastening the overtaking of the fugitive motor boat.
They were rushing on at this tremendous pace, and constantly gaining, when George gave vent to a sudden loud exclamation.