"This isn't a foolish notion, as you'll see," replied the other.
A few minutes more rowing brought them to the side of the motor boat. All was silent on board, Hinckley being asleep in the cabin. Captain Akers had told him that it would not be necessary to keep a strict watch, and he was making up for lost sleep on the rough voyage up by a sound slumber.
As they drew longside the "Nomad," it was seen that her stern was swung seaward, showing that the strong tide which set out of the bay was dragging her Pacificward. The anchor cable was drawn taut as a fiddle string under the strain.
Dayton stood up in the boat, and with one slash of his heavy knife he severed the stout rope, the few strands which he had not cut through parting under the strain of the tide-swung craft.
He gave a low chuckle as the "Nomad," anchorless and adrift, began to glide out to sea at quite a swift pace.
"Now, then," he laughed, "I guess we are ready for the schooner. From her decks we could stand off an army in rowboats, and that is the only kind of craft they can obtain now."
By the time they reached the schooner's side, so rapidly had the tide done its work, that the "Nomad" had completely vanished in the darkness, not even a dim white blur of her form showing up.
"I guess this is the time that we have the Motor Rangers checkmated to a standstill," muttered Dayton to himself, as he climbed up the side of the "Nettie Nelsen." "By the time they recover their boat we shall be miles at sea and beyond danger of pursuit."
Presently they had all gained the decks of the vessel, the chest and the unconscious form of poor Captain Nelsen being handed up, after the boat had been hauled up on the stern davits. This done, the men, under the directions of the gigantic Swensen, the former sailor, set about heaving the anchor and ungasketing the sails preparatory to leaving the bay with all the speed they could command.
In the meantime, let us go back and see what had been occurring ashore. As the astute Dayton had surmised, Nat, who was on watch, but had been overcome by weariness, had awakened with a start a few minutes after the two rascals had set out for the wharf with the chest.