it has to be pumped up each
time. That's not as hard as it sounds, though, because the pump is
made so that two strokes will give it a full air charge. It's about as
fast firing as a single-shot .22 rifle."

Rick's eyes scanned the horizon. "How do you suppose Carrots tracked
us to Cap'n Mike's shack?"

"Easy enough. He could hike along the shore and keep us in sight."

"He was risking being seen when he put that warning on the seat.
Suppose one of us had looked out the window?"

"Then he would have pretended to be just hiking, or looking at the
boat or something. It wasn't really much of a risk."

"I suppose not," Rick agreed. Small specks on the horizon caught his
eye suddenly and he pointed. "There's the fleet!"

Scotty held the binoculars to his eyes. "Sure enough. About eight
trawlers so far, pretty well scattered."

In a few moments they could see clouds of gulls and petrels around the
boats, a sure sign of plenty of fish. Then they made out the details
of the big nets used by the fishermen for catching the menhaden.

"See if you can spot the _Albatross_," Rick said.

"You'll have to go down and pass each boat, then. I couldn't make out
the names from this height."

"Okay. Here we go."

On each of the craft, fishermen waved as the Cub sped past. Scotty
read the names aloud. None of the trawlers was the _Albatross_.

Rick put the Cub into a climb. "There must be other trawlers around.
Let's go up and take a look."

Scotty shook his head. "I have a better idea. We'll see the
_Albatross_ tonight, anyway. Why not go into shore and fly over Creek
House? Sometimes you can see things from the air you can't see from
the ground."

Rick considered. Flying out to the fleet had been only an impulse
anyway; he hadn't expected to see anything. He was quite sure the
_Albatross_ would look and act just like the rest of the Seaford
fleet.

"Good idea," he said finally, and banked the Cub around. He pointed
the little plane south of west to compensate for the wind, then
settled back.

Rick kept an eye out for landmarks as the coast approached and
presently he made out the steel towers of an antenna field. That would
be the Loran radio range south of Seaford. He had compensated a little
too much for drift. He banked north and in a few moments Scotty
spotted Seaford.

Rick dropped down, but kept out to sea so that he wouldn't violate the
law about flying too low over towns. He saw the windmill and Cap'n
Mike's