th an ear over
the heart of a patient. But the throbbing he heard was true if slow;
already the boat was responding to the propeller, resisting the action
of wind and water, even beginning to surge heavily forward.

Hastily kicking the hatch cover out of the way, he bent over the open
engine-pit, quickly solved the puzzle of the controlling levers,
accelerated the ignition and opened the throttle wide. The motor
answered this manipulation with an instantaneous change of tune; the
staccato drumming of the slow speed merged into a long, incessant rumble
like the roll of a dozen muffled snare-drums. The _Trouble_ leaped out
like a live thing, settling to its course with the fleet precision of an
arrow truly loosed.

With a brief exclamation of satisfaction, Whitaker went back to the
wheel, shifted the ignition from batteries to magneto; and for the first
time since he had appreciated the magnitude of the outrage found himself
with time to think, to take stock of his position, to consider what he
had already accomplished and what he must henceforward hold himself
prepared to attempt. Up to that moment he had acted almost blindly,
swayed by impulse as a tree by the wind, guided by unquestioning
instinct in every action. Now....

He had got the boat under way with what in retrospect appealed to him as
amazing celerity, bearing in mind his unfamiliarity with its equipment.
The other boat had a lead of little if any more than half a mile; or so
he gauged the distance that separated them, making due allowance for the
illusion of the moon-smitten night. Whether that gap was to diminish or
to widen would develop before many minutes had passed. The _Trouble_ was
making a fair pace: roughly reckoned, between fourteen and sixteen miles
an hour. He suspected the other boat of having more power, but this did
not necessarily imply greater speed. At all events (he concluded) twenty
minutes at the outside would see the end of the chase--however it was to
end: the eastern head of the bay was not over five miles away; they
could not long hold to their present course without running aground.

He hazarded wild guesses as to their plans: of which the least
implausible was that they were making for some out-of-the-way landing,
intending there to transfer to a motor-car. At least, this would
presumably prove to be the case, if the outrage were what, at first
blush, it gave evidence of being: a kidnapping uncomplicated by any
fouler motive...