“Which do you think is nearest?” questioned Gif.
“I think we’re about half way, Gif.”
“In that case, we might as well go on,” put in Spouter. “We don’t want to be tied up at Nantucket indefinitely. If we reach Chatham, or some other point on the Cape, then, if the weather continues to be bad, we can always get back by train.”
“Yes, but we don’t want to leave Ralph alone with the boat,” said Jack.
“Oh, that would be all right,” answered the former major of the school battalion. “I haven’t got to get back, you know. My time is my own. I can stay anywhere until the weather clears up, and then it will be an easy matter for me to run along the coast to New Bedford, where we keep the Fancy.”
“You’ll have to run slow, Ralph, and toot your horn,” said Randy. “We don’t want to smash into anything.”
“Every one of you had better keep his eyes and ears wide open. We’re right in the course used by a whole lot of steamers going up and down the coast. If one of those big vessels hits us it might cut us in two.”
“Wow! but you’re a cheerful customer,” murmured Andy. “You’ll have us at the bottom of the ocean before you know it.”
But in spite of this raillery, Andy knew as well as the others that there was need for caution. Two of the lads stationed themselves in the bow of the motor boat, and as they proceeded the horn of which the craft boasted was sounded frequently.