"It's as big a mystery as ever."
"There's just one thing we'll have to do," sighed Mr. Bascomb, "and that will be to stop running the camp on a basis of old Puritan laws."
"You talk Reade into it, if you can," chuckled Treasurer Prenter. "You won't find him easy to convince, either."
Tom didn't wait to discuss the matter. Instead, he signaled to Foreman
Corbett to run the craft out again.
"If you want to, Corbett," suggested Tom, with a laugh, as the boat moved over the salt waters again, "you might go ashore and go to bed. You can easily claim that you engaged with us as a foreman, and that being captain of a motor boat amounts to breach of contract."
"I'm not fussing," smiled the foreman. "As long as I can sleep daytimes running this motor boat is easier than working."
"It probably will be," nodded Reade, "unless the enemy go in for a new line of tactics."
"Such as what, sir?" asked Corbett.
"If this boat hampers them too much they may decide to send it to the bottom with a torpedo."
"Let 'em try, then," grunted the foreman, giving the steering wheel a turn.