Captain Andrews snatched up the Sea Gull’s megaphone. His bronzed face was flushed with rage, and his voice shook with suppressed fury as he bellowed back:
“You infernal scoundrels, what do you mean by firing at us? Are you going to let us board you and give up that model, or do we have to make you?”
“Oh, run along and play,” came back from the Tarpon, in a voice which the boys recognized as Jake Rook’s.
“You keep away from us if you know what’s good for you,” came back in another voice.
“By Neptune, boys,” growled Captain Andrews, “it kind of looks as if they had the upper hand of us after all. I don’t see how we can board them as things are now. It’s no use sticking our heads in a hornet’s nest, and that’s what we’d be doing if——Hello! They are moving again; guess they’ve got their engine fixed. Well, we can stick to their heels, and if they run into a town we can arrive close enough to them to have them arrested.”
“But will they make for a town now that we are so close on their tracks?” wondered Jack.
“Isn’t it more likely they’d land along the coast some place, where there was no risk of encountering the authorities?”
“Jove, lad, I don’t know but what you’re right. Well, all we can do is to tag along and watch our chance.”
“Look, one of them is coming out of the cabin with a megaphone,” cried Tom suddenly.
They watched a figure clamber up on the stern of the boat ahead and raise the speaking trumpet.