"BONNY'S INVENTION STARTED ON ITS JOURNEY"
"Do you mean that you actually expect that floating lantern to attract the revenue people, so they will go to examine it, instead of coming after us?"
"Attract 'em! Of course it will. They'll go for it the same as June bugs go for street electrics, and then they'll wish they had spent their time hunting for us instead."
Ever since leaving the dancing light Bonny had not been able to take his eyes from it, so anxious was he to discover whether or not it served the purpose for which it was intended. It grew fainter and smaller as the sloop gained distance on her new course. Then all at once it seemed to rise from the water, and an instant later disappeared.
"They've got it, and lifted it aboard!" cried Bonny, delightedly. And in his exultation he called out, "The beaks have doused the glim, Cap'n Duff!"
"Douse your tongue, ye swab, and keep your eyes p'inted for'ard!" was the ungracious reply muttered out of the after darkness.
"What an old bear he is!" murmured Alaric, indignantly.
"Yes; isn't he?—a regular old sea-bear? But I don't mind him any more than I would a rumble of imitation thunder. I say, though, Rick, isn't this jolly exciting?"
"Yes," admitted the other, "it certainly is."