"That's the talk, Swensen," put in one of the group, Al. Jeffries, the man who had impersonated a traveler at the Lariat Hotel. "We want action, Colonel. Your plan to get a vessel at this quiet, out-of-the-way place was a good one. What we want is to have it put into practice."
"That schooner lying in the bay is the first vessel to put in here in a week, isn't she?" growled Colonel Morello, although he was too wise to adopt anything but a mildly argumentative tone with his followers.
"That's right, but why can't we charter her?" came from Swensen.
"Yes, or that small, white craft that came round the point a short while ago and anchored not far from the schooner?" demanded Al. Jeffries.
"We have not had time to find out about the schooner yet," reasoned Colonel Morello, "and we don't want to spoil things by rushing them. A little too much haste now might ruin all our plans. As for the small white craft——"
"I can tell you all about her," put in Dayton, who had stood silently by while this colloquy was going forward.
The others turned on him in some astonishment.
"You mean that she can be hired for our purpose?" he began. But Dayton interrupted him with a quick wave of the hand.
"I mean," he said, "that she can be no such thing. That craft is owned by those pesky young cubs, the Motor Rangers——"
He was going on, but a perfect uproar of exclamations of astonishment interrupted him. Colonel Morello finally succeeded in quelling the disturbance and Dayton went on to relate all that he had overheard while he lay concealed by the side of the trail.