"Race you!"
"So will we!" called Frank.
Biff abandoned his indolent posture and settled down to take advantage of his head start. His boat leaped ahead with a roar. Tony Prito had to make a half turn before he could get under way.
The Hardy boys were similarly unprepared, but they had no doubt of the ability of the Sleuth to overhaul Biff's boat quickly. Their craft was one of the speediest in the bay, with smooth lines and a powerful engine.
They had trouble on the turn, for the swells of the other boats caught the Sleuth and put it off its course, and by the time the craft was nosing in pursuit, Biff Hooper had a good lead and Tony Prito was also ahead of them.
"Step on it!" said Joe.
Frank "stepped on it," and the Sleuth began eating up the intervening distance. Rocking and swaying, prow well out of the water, the boat overhauled the Napoli and Frank grinned at Tony as they crept by. The Italian lad was getting every ounce of speed of which his engine was capable and although he jockeyed to try to put the Hardy boys off the course, they sped on and soon left him behind.
Biff had been tinkering with the engine of his craft and had evidently made a few improvements, for the Envoy was going along at a clip it had never before achieved.
"Looks as if he intends to put one over on us," muttered Frank, as he opened up the engine to the last notch. "He'll beat us to the boat at this rate."
The motor yacht was about a mile away.