turn back again.
They had fair weather and light breezes all the way to New Harbour and
from there, the next day, around the tip of the Cape to Provincetown.
They dropped anchor off the yacht club landing at Provincetown at four
o'clock Friday afternoon and went ashore as soon as the boats were
berthed and sought the post-office. Provincetown had been selected as
the first certain port of call and most of the thirteen boys found mail
awaiting them. Only Neil, however, received tidings of importance, and
his letter from his parents brought an exclamation of dismay to his
lips.

"Anything wrong?" asked Ossie, sitting beside him on the rail of the
hotel porch.

"Rotten," replied Neil disgustedly. "I've got to go home!"

"Go home!" echoed the other. "What for?"

"Dad's got to go to England on some silly business or other," explained
Neil gloomily, "and he wants me to stay with mother. Of course I ought
to. Mother's sort of an invalid and there's no one else. But it's rotten
luck." He stowed the letter in his pocket and stared disappointedly at
the passing traffic. "I was having a bully time, too," he muttered
disconsolately.

"That's a shame," said Ossie sympathetically. "When will you have to
go?"

"He wants me to meet him in New York Sunday. He sails early Monday
morning. I suppose I'll have to go tomorrow. Guess I'd better get a time
table and see how the trains run."

"Gee, I'm sorry," murmured Ossie.

And so, for that matter, was every other member of the _Adventurer's_
company for Neil was well liked. And the _Follow He's_ crew were
scarcely less regretful. A study of the railroad schedule showed that
the next train for Boston left at five-fifty-five in the morning and
that the only other train was at two-forty in the afternoon.

"Five-fifty-five's a perfectly punk time for a train to leave anywhere,
even Provincetown," objected Neil. "And the two-forty will get me to
Boston too late for anything but a midnight train to New York."

"Bother trains," said Steve. "We'll run you to Boston tomorrow in the
boat. We can do it in four hours or so. If the _Follow Me_ crowd want to
stay here another day we'll wait for them at Boston, or we'll go on and
meet them further up the shore."

"But I don't want to hurry you chaps away from the Cape," expostulated
Neil. "You were going to Plymouth, weren't you?"

"Yes, we were, but there's nothing important about that. Hold on,
though! I say, look up the Plymouth trains,