"They've discovered the theft!" gasped Morello scrambling into the boat after Dayton. "Pull for your lives, boys. It's prison if they catch us."
The men did not need this warning to make them give way with a will. The boat, bearing in it the unconscious captain, fairly flew over the water toward the dark outline of the schooner. In the meantime, the hubbub ashore increased. Lights could be seen flashing in every direction. Shouts and cries were borne clearly over the water.
"We can laugh at all that once we are on board and the anchors weighed," muttered Dayton. "There's a good breeze springing up, and by dawn we ought to be twenty miles out at sea."
But Colonel Morello suddenly recollected something that dashed their enthusiasm.
"Those boys have a motor boat!" he exclaimed.
"Concern it all, that's so," snarled Dayton. "Let's see, we've got to do some quick thinking. Is the tide setting in or out?"
"It's going out," said one of the oarsmen.
"Whatever has that to do with the matter?" snapped Colonel Morello impatiently.
"Everything," was Dayton's reply. "Boys, pull us over toward that motor boat. There—off in that direction—you can just see her white outline."
"What do you mean to do?" asked Morello nervously. "We've no time to waste on foolish notions."