“Can we overhaul her, do you think?” questioned Jack anxiously.
Captain Andrews shook his head doubtfully.
“Even if she had to slow down for a time she is creeping ahead now; but maybe, if all goes well, we can keep on her track through the night. For one thing, we know that she is bound for East Hampton, and I could find my way there blindfolded.”
“Perhaps I could fix your engine so that it will give us a little more speed,” volunteered Jack.
“I wish you could, lad,” responded the seaman, taking the wheel from the boy once more.
“I’ll do what I can,” promised Jack.
He fell to work on the motor, and found that by readjusting the carburetor he could coax more speed out of it. By this time it was dark, and, having finished his work on the motor, Jack went forward with the running lights. Soon they were shining out like twin jewels—red to port and green to starboard. Then he set the stern light, and coming back eagerly looked into the night ahead of them.
All at once through the darkness a white light flashed up and instantly vanished, only to reappear again as the Tarpon rose on a wave crest.
“So long as we keep that light in sight we are all right,” declared Captain Andrews, and resigning the wheel to Jack, he went below to prepare supper, which meal they ate in “relays.” Coming on deck after his meal, Jack saw, to his astonishment, that the dancing white light ahead of them was much closer than it had been before he went below. This meant that they were overhauling the Tarpon.
“We’re creeping right up on her,” declared Captain Andrews, when Jack mentioned this fact to him; “we ought to be alongside in half an hour if we keep on at this gait.”