Leslie chose to follow in the wake of the yacht, which drew farther and farther away from them, and finally turned north along the coast, disappearing from view. It had not been Leslie’s intention, to be sure, to go out into the open sea very far, but she saw Mr. Tudor and his friend in another launch no bigger than the Sea Crest and she found the sea very little rougher than the bay. “It will be fairly light for more than an hour, Sarita, let’s stay out a while.”
Sarita was willing, and they turned the little Sea Crest toward the open sea and sped on. Suddenly, upon the horizon, a lovely sight greeted their eyes. There hung a large schooner as if suspended from the clouds. It was in full sail, the last pink and lavender of the sunset imparting a tinge of color to the swelling sails.
“How lovely!” exclaimed Leslie. “Is it a fishing schooner, or the schooner, I wonder?”
“It might be either, or both,” laughed Sarita. “How odd! It’s simply fading from view! See, it’s turned, too.”
The girls watched the schooner till they could see it no more. Then Leslie turned the launch and ran straight for the bay. “Do you suppose that it is the schooner and that the yacht has gone to meet it now? They certainly would not take Peggy and Mrs. Ives, would they? How terrible it would be if they were boarded out there and Peggy would be in the midst of it!”
But as they came on, they saw Mrs. Ives and Peggy in a launch run by no less a personage than Bill himself. Peggy said something to Bill, who ran the launch within speaking distance while she called, “Engine stopped and we had to signal for help. Dad and the Count may have to stay there all night!” Peggy’s face was bright. There was much else that she wanted to tell the girls, but Bill wouldn’t want to wait, she knew.
After nodding brightly to Peggy, Leslie and Sarita looked at each other. “Camouflage,” said Leslie “They meant to send them back all the time. Their engine is all right and that’s the schooner! Bill will go out with the launch, of course, taking the plumber!”
“Plumber!” laughed Sarita.
“Well, isn’t that whom you send for when anything is out of fix?” Quick-witted Leslie’s imagination was right, as it happened. Sending on her boat at full speed, she felt very much relieved to think that Peggy would be safely at home. “I’d pay five cents,” she added, “to know if Mr. Tudor is taking this in.”
As that was Mr. Tudor’s chief business at this time, he was not ignorant of all the moves. Like Leslie, however, he was going in to shore. The schooner would be taken care of at the proper time by others. He knew who was on the yacht and where it lay. He was not so impatient as the girls, for he knew what it all involved. The denouement might be dramatic. He hoped that it would be neither dangerous nor fatal to anyone. No move at all was to be made until the alien passengers were transferred from the schooner. Bill’s scouts were then to be quietly seized, in order that no signal might be given the yacht, though even then the chase upon the open sea would probably be successful. Tom Carey was of great help in learning who these scouts were.