the motion of the launch made the situation of all pleasant. Since
there was no call for haste, Calvert suggested to the Captain that he
should not strain the engine, and Alvin was quite willing to spare it.
The time might soon come when it would be necessary to call upon the boat
to do her best, and he meant she should be ready to respond.

Past the Cat Ledges, Jo and Cedarbrush Islands moved the _Deerfoot_ like
a swan skimming over the placid waters. Then came Hendrick Light, Dog
Fish Head, Green Islands and Boston Island. Powderhorn was passed, and
then they glided by Isle of Springs, which brought them in sight of
Sawyer. A little beyond was the inlet where they had seen the _Water
Witch_ reposing in the darkness of night.

CHAPTER III

AT THE INLET

"SLOW down," said Detective Calvert as the launch drew near the southern
end of Barter Island. Captain Alvin did as requested and all eyes were
fixed upon the inlet.

"If that boat should happen to come out while we are in sight," added
Calvert, "pass up the river, as if you had no interest in it."

"But if it should happen to be there?" said Alvin, repeating the question
he had asked before.

"We can't know until we have turned in, and then it would not do to
withdraw, for that would be the most suspicious course of all. You have
as much right to go thither as anyone. Act as if you were merely looking
in out of curiosity; make a circuit of the islet and then come back and
go on up the Sheepscot toward Wiscasset."

It was at this moment that Mike Murphy asked a question whose point the
others were quick to perceive.

"If the spalpeens are there, will ye let 'em have a sight of yersilf?"

"No; I shall drop down and hide, for if they noted that you had me for a
passenger they might smell a rat, but would think nothing of seeing you
three, for they know you travel together."

As the launch drew near the opening, Alvin slackened her speed still more
until she was not going faster than five or six miles an hour. There was
an abundance of sea room and he curved into the passage with his usual
skill. The four peered intently forward and had to wait only a minute or
two when the boat had progressed far enough to give them a full view of
the crescent-like cove, which extended backward for several hundred yards
and had an expansion of perhaps four hundred feet. In the very middle was
the islet, in the form of an irregular oval, containing altogether barely
a