rearm bandaged neatly and
scientifically, crowded his way up the after companion. "Say, Steve, let
me have a shot at them, will you?" he begged earnestly. "Just one,
Steve, like a good fellow!"

"How's the arm, Perry?"

"Oh, all right, I guess. It hurts a little. Phil's got it so blamed
tight that I can't close my fingers. Will you, Steve?"

Steve was denied an answer by a sudden interruption from Wink. "She's
moving, Steve!" he cried. "They've started her!"

"But they're anchored!" exclaimed Joe.

"They've cut the line. Probably reached through a port on the other
side," said Steve, working quickly at the controls. "It's lucky we
didn't have ours down, too!"

The _Follow Me_, gathering headway, pushed for the channel, and the
_Adventurer_ lunged forward with a mighty splashing of her screw, Steve
bringing her head around as fast as he could. "How the dickens are they
steering her, Harry?" he demanded, staring in puzzlement at the empty
cockpit of the other craft.

"There's an auxiliary wheel forward, in the stateroom. They're coming
around, fellows. Get under cover! Steve, you'd better drop!"

The others scuttled for the companion ways, and none too soon, for, as
the _Follow Me_ swung around into the channel those behind her ports had
a clean sweep of the _Adventurer's_ bridge deck and a fusillade of shots
swept across the forty or fifty yards dividing the boats. Steve and Wink
had dropped below the rail, while, in the cabins, the others were taking
good care to crouch beneath the level of the ports. Some eight shots
were fired, but, although several took effect on various parts of the
bridge, the fact that the _Adventurer_ was now plunging around in a
half-circle at a full twelve miles an hour and the other boat was
running at top speed down the channel made accuracy impossible. Neither
Steve nor Wink had a chance to reply until it was too late for their
shots to be effective. By that time the two cruisers had straightened
out on the course and the chase had begun.

Harry Corwin was entrusted with Steve's revolver and, standing on the
dining table set from locker to locker across the galley, he could
thrust head and shoulders through the hatch. But the cockpit of the
_Follow Me_ remained empty and the entrance to the cabin was closed.
Wink, his revolver ready, had returned to his post and watched grimly
while the _Adventurer_, her engine fairly humming, slowly wore down the
distance that separated her from