"What would you do if you happened to come on the boat like yours?" asked Nick.
"That depends," replied Jack, seriously. "If I felt positive the men aboard were the chaps who broke open the Waverly bank I'd try to let the authorities know. But they must be pretty hard cases, and I'd go mighty slow about trying to grab such customers myself. I'm not hired to play the part of detective or sheriff. All that stuff I leave to the proper officials."
"How do we stand on this second leg, Jack?" asked George.
"I've just been figuring it up," replied the other, referring to his notebook. "It seems that the speed boat made the run in just ten hours of actual work. We did the same in fourteen hours, twelve minutes; and the steady old Comfort in eighteen hours, seven minutes. That's as near correct as it could be figured."
George beamed with gratification.
"Shake, partner," he said, thrusting out a hand to Nick, who looked at him suspiciously, then examined his hand, and finally gingerly allowed the other to take hold of a couple of his pudgy fingers.
"You see, we've more than wiped out our first day's loss, and have a nice little balance in the bargain," George went on.
"Yes," laughed Jack, "and a balance is a handy thing to have, whether in a bank or in a record of days' runs during a long race. I congratulate you, fellows, and hope you may duplicate the performance."
Herb and Josh seemed in no wise cast down over the poor showing their boat had made up to date.
"Just you wait," observed the former, positively. "Perhaps we've got a card or two up our sleeves. We don't tell everything we know, do we, Josh? And long ago I learned that the race is not always to the swift."