"The idiots!" exclaimed Biff.
"I don't get the idea of this at all," muttered Frank Hardy to his brother. "What are they following us so closely for?"
Joe shrugged. "Probably just trying to give us a scare."
The other boat was now almost upon their craft. It nosed out to the right and drew alongside, coming dangerously close. The boys could see the three men clearly and they noticed that all three scrutinized them, seeming to pay particular attention to Chet and Biff.
The men were unsavory looking fellows, unshaven, surly of expression. The man at the helm was sharp-featured and keen-eyed, while the other two were of heavier build. One of the pair wore a cap, while the other man was bare-headed, revealing a scant thatch of carroty hair so close-cropped that it seemed to stick out at all angles to his cranium. This man, the boys saw, nudged his companion and pointed to Biff, who was too busy at the helm of his own craft to notice.
"Not so close!" yelled Chet, seeing that the other boat was running broadside in dangerous proximity to the Envoy.
In reply, the man at the helm of the other craft merely sneered and brought his boat in until the two speeding launches were almost touching sides.
"What's the idea?" Joe shouted. "Trying to run us down?"
Biff Hooper shifted the wheel so that the Envoy would edge away from the other boat, and in this effort he was successful, for a gap of water was soon apparent between the speeding craft. But in escaping one danger he had risked another.
Two sailboats that had been flitting about Barmet Bay that afternoon were racing with the wind, and they now came threshing along with billowing canvas, immediately into the course of the motorboat. Biff had seen the sailboats previously and had judged his own course accordingly, but in his efforts to get away from the mysterious launch he had unwittingly maneuvered the Envoy into such a position that a collision now seemed inevitable.