“Why!”
“To see whom you have aboard.”
“Only us two boat-handlers on board,” replied one of the pair.
“Tell that to the mermaids,” retorted Captain Tom, grimly.
“Don’t you believe us?” demanded the same speaker, the larger of the rough-looking seafaring pair.
“I’m not very good at believing,” was the younger skipper’s reply.
“Then wait until we get slowly under way, and you can come up alongside. I guess you can board us, on this gentle sea, without scraping either hull,” proposed the speaker aboard the racer.
That offer, made in seeming good faith, almost staggered Tom Halstead for the moment. Why the stranger should run away for hours, then suddenly agree to be boarded, was not at once apparent.
“Unless they want to get one of us aboard, or want to try the mighty risky trick of capturing us on the high seas,” reflected the young skipper. “However, all we’re here for is to find and rescue Mr. Delavan. We’ve simply got to try to do that.”
So he nodded, allowed his boat to fall away, then come up alongside the racing boat, now under slow headway.