"All right, then," laughed Dick. "That demand makes policemen of us all. Tom, you can turn, now, when ready, and put on full speed in going after that craft."
Reade gave the order for full speed, then took the steering wheel himself.
"Guilty conscience!" laughed Prescott. "There's the sloop putting about at once and heading away from us."
"They can't get away from us, in this light wind," chuckled the young chief engineer.
A few minutes later the "Morton" came up within easy hailing distance of the sloop, aboard which only one man now appeared.
"Sloop ahoy!" called the policeman. "What are you doing in these waters?"
"Looking for a good fishing ground," answered the dark-faced man at the tiller.
"Then you're too far in by some three miles," answered the policeman.
"Thank you, cap'n," acknowledged the sailing master of the sloop.
"You're welcome," the policeman continued, "but ease off your sheet and lay to. We want to come aboard."