"You trailed us!"
"We've suspected it all along. The Crosby Company had sunk too much money in its fleet."
"That's what Bill told me." Captain Bert's eyes were wide.
"The Crosby Company was left bankrupt with a fleet it could not get rid of, although they succeeded in keeping the news from getting out. It had no capital to operate such a fleet with, but the vessels were insured up to the last dollar of their value."
"Tell him about Bill," interposed Captain Ed.
"Wait." And to Captain Bert again, "The Brisfield Insurance Company sent me as its inspector to keep the fleet under observation while it was in this harbor. Cap'n Pierce is a stockholder in the insurance company. So as soon as I got here—about an hour or so ago on the night train from Boston—I looked him up."
"I'd be in consider'ble money if ye'd come an hour or so sooner," commented Captain Ed. "But go on."
"Cap'n Ed said you were starting for Gloucester in an old hulk you'd discarded—with a new mate—and we agreed it looked suspicious. So we trailed you in his sloop."
Captain Bert sat bolt upright.
"We stayed to wind'ard of the Crosby fleet to make observations," Mr. Clyde went on. "That's why we didn't pick you up earlier. The last we saw of you and Bill, you were fighting for the wheel with fire all around you. We had to get complete evidence that the Crosby fleet was set afire from the inside of the Mehitable."