By this time the motor boat was lying all but motionless, moving only under the impulse of recent headway. Leaving the wheel at a bound, Halstead leaped down into the engine room.
“If the fellows on the schooner are holding a glass on us, they saw me do that,” laughed Tom, as he landed beside his chum. Hank rushed up on deck, vanishing aft. After a few moments he flew forward again, diving down into the engine room.
“I say,” called Eben Moddridge, from the hatchway, “this conduct of yours is about as hard to understand as——”
“That’s right, sir,” replied Tom, coolly. “Stand there, looking down at us as though you’re all broken up. That’ll help fool the fellow with the glass aboard the schooner.”
“It’s working bully, fine!” reported Joe, gleefully, looking out of one of the starboard port-holes. “The schooner’s skipper is easing off his sheets. He’s going to lie to and watch us. Hank, you’d better start another excited merry-go-round between here and aft.”
Young Butts was surely in his element doing things that looked crazy. The way he raced over the deck and bobbed in and out must have made the schooner’s people believe that there was extraordinary excitement aboard the motor boat. Halstead now joined his chum in looking out to starboard.
“Say,” he roared, suddenly, “that’s just what we wanted!”
Eben Moddridge turned to stare over the water.
“Why, they seem to be lowering a boat,” he observed.