been fastened to the wharf.

"Avast there!" he said. "Mr. Redwood don't let his boats go out that
way."

"What do you mean?" demanded the stranger with the bandaged head.

"He won't let you go out alone. How does he know that you will bring the
boat back?"

"Nonsense. I want to go by myself."

"He wants to take her out himself," called the assistant to Uncle Jimmy,
who stood near the end of the float talking with another tarry old salt.

"He can't, and that settles it," said Uncle Jimmy.

"Shall I go with him?" asked the assistant, who held the Clio's painter.

"No; let Dick, here, go."

Dick, thus delegated to the duty of skipper, rolled down the float with
the gait of an old sailor, and got aboard the Clio.

The stranger with the sore head grumbled, but he could not help
himself. He insisted, however, on taking the helm as the Clio moved out
from the float.

She was scarcely a hundred yards away when a young man, panting with
haste, rushed down the stairs from the boat-house. The reader would have
known Patsy by his activity, despite his disguise.

"I want a boat," he cried out.

"Quite a run o' business for so early in the morning," said Uncle Jimmy,
calmly. "What sort o' boat do you want?"

"I want one that can overhaul the one that just left the float."

"I ain't got it," said Uncle Jimmy. "The Curlew is about even with her,
but they ain't one o' them that can outsail her."

"Then give me the Curlew, and do it in a hurry," cried Patsy.

"By whose orders, I'd like to know?"

Patsy was in no mood for trifling. He showed Uncle Jimmy in less than
two seconds that obedience would pay well.

The Curlew also was hauled in to the float, and Patsy was aboard of her
and clear of his moorings before anybody could stop him, or even get in
with him.

A brisk southerly wind was blowing in from the sea.

By the course which the Clio was taking Patsy guessed that it was the
intention of her occupants to "beat" down the river against the wind.

Meanwhile, in the Clio, the man with the bandaged head was in a fever of
excitement. He crowded the boat for all she could stand, but he seemed,
on the whole, to be a clever boatman.

The old salt watched him critically for a few minutes, and then seemed
to be satisfied.

Presently he began to notice the anxious glances which the man at the
helm cast over his shoulder at the pursuing boat.

"You seem to be anxious to outrun that feller," he said at last.

Pa