With business of such importance to perform, they could not wait for the winds to carry them, but Alec started his motor and the Osprey went chugging swiftly toward the oyster grounds. About them rose a very sea of reeds and other marsh growths, now beautiful in their soft green, summer hues, and stretching level as a floor.
In a surprisingly short time the Osprey had crossed the bar and was fairly in the Bay. The gray-green water rolled so gently before the soft breath of the wind that the Osprey rose and fell hardly at all. Occasionally a little wave came slap! against the boat, sending a shower of spray aboard, but the occupants of the boat merely laughed when they were sprinkled.
Suddenly Alec bent forward and fastened his gaze on some distant object. Then, after a moment's study, "What do you suppose those white things are on those stakes?" he asked.
Elsa looked. "Pieces of white cloth," she said after some study.
Alec was puzzled. "You notice that all four corners of the bed are marked with white," he said.
The Osprey drew near to the marked stakes. Alec turned and faced landward. "I know what it means," he cried. "That's your father's new bed. It's right in line with both sets of landmarks. Those thieves must have marked the stakes sometime during the day, so that they could see the corners easily in the dark. It can't be very much farther to Tom Hardy's bed. Hawley told me how to locate it. I reckon it'll be on the market before long. I want to have a good look at it."
Alec paused to think over Hawley's directions. "There!" he cried suddenly. "See that dead tree with the fish-hawk's nest in it? It's just in line with those three big oaks that stand by themselves. We're all right in that direction. Off here we ought to have a little clump of trees directly in line with the first range-light." He turned and studied the shore-line in the other direction. "There! Now we've got it exactly," he cried a moment later. "This must be Hardy's bed."
"There are some corner stakes," said Elsa. And after a moment's search, she added, "There is another corner."
Quickly they found a third corner, but the stakes that marked the fourth corner were missing entirely. "It doesn't matter," said Alec. "Three corners are just as good as four. This bed looks as though it were oblong and at least twice as wide as it is long. When he staked it out, I suppose Jim Hawley reckoned he could dredge faster if he could plow long furrows, as the farmers back home would say. It isn't a bad idea. I'll keep it in mind when I lay out my grounds. It's making so many turns that wastes time, whether you're dredging or plowing."
"What shall we do first?" said Elsa. "Let's get right to work."