"My man," called down Halstead, "go at once to Mr. Baldwin's stateroom door, and tell him, with my compliments, that I believe he'd better come to the bridge at once."
Even with so imperative a summons as this, five or six minutes passed before the owner appeared on the scene.
"Good heavens, Captain!" gasped Joseph Baldwin. "And this white curtain is thickening all the time, isn't it?"
"The fog is beginning to roll in fast, now, sir. Mr. Davis, alter the course so as to bring us a hundred yards closer to the 'Victor.' We've got to keep her in sight to the last moment."
"We've got to keep that other boat in sight all the time," retorted Mr. Baldwin.
"As close as we can go without running her down," Halstead answered. "We've the rules of the sea to obey, sir, at any cost."
"Go and call Mr. Jephson here," shouted down Mr. Baldwin, to the sailor, who was still standing by at the port rail.
In another five minutes the representative of the United States district attorney at San Francisco was beside them on the bridge.
Dick Davis had now manœuvred the "Panther" in within one hundred and fifty yards of the "Victor." Closer than that Tom Halstead did not dare to go. Even this he considered almost too little sea-way.