anything happened to the Growler? It seems she's the only boat they
are afraid of anyway, and if she isn't in the race why the Varmint II
will just walk away with the cup."

"And do you really think," inquired Fred, "that they will try to damage
our boat so that she can't be in the race?"

"I'm not saying THEY will," answered Sam, "but somebody might. Perhaps
they wouldn't know anything about it."

"Do you think those men who were here to-night came to do that?"

"I'm suspicious," said Sam, "but I don't know yet how much damage they
did. I called you because I thought I might need your help. There isn't
anything more you can do now and you might as well go back to bed."

With the coming of the day most of the fears and anxieties of the boys
departed. The alarm of Sam the preceding night appeared very
differently now and they even were inclined to laugh at him for his
fears. Sam, however, had fallen once more into one of his periods of
silence and made no comment on the remarks of the Go Ahead boys.

"I'm going over to the Bay now," said Sam when the boys after breakfast
approached the dock.

"Are you going in the motor-boat?" inquired Fred.

"Yes, sir."

"How long will you be there?"

"I don't know. Probably an hour."

"Then we'll go over with you," answered Fred. "Perhaps we'll find one
of these fellows who were trying to blow up the Black Growler last
night." "I'm not saying they were trying to blow her up," retorted Sam.
"You don't have to blow up a boat to put it out of commission, do you?
Her machinery is so fine that it wouldn't take very much damage to one
part to throw the whole thing out of gear."

"That's true," said George, "but I don't believe, Sam, that there's
need for our being scared. Probably those two men you saw last night
were just stopping on their way back to the Bay from some of the
islands."

Sam shook his head and although he did not speak, his action implied
that the Go Ahead boys might soon be wiser than they were at that time.

Nor was his suspicion misplaced. Not many hours had elapsed before they
were almost as strong as Sam in their belief that the Black Growler was
not only an object of dislike, but also that there was a real peril
that she might be so injured that it would be impossible for her to
enter the race.

CHAPTER XXII

A COLLISION

In a brief time the Black Growler was fast to one of the side-docks and
the party prepared to disembark.

"I'm not going