trick Deever, for it was he, nodded his head and set his teeth. The
old sailor looked long and earnestly at their pursuer.

"Wall, ye ain't doin' of it," he said, at last.

"Is she gaining?" asked Deever, nervously.

"She be," said the tar, calmly.

"I thought this was the fastest of Redwood's boats."

"So she be," was the answer; "but the Curlew's overhauling her this
time."

"What's the matter?"

"The other feller's the best sailor, that's what's the matter. I don't
know who he is, but he's a skipper from away back."

For some minutes Deever kept silent. From time to time he glanced
astern.

There was no doubt about it; the Curlew was gaining.

"Can you get any more speed out of her?" he said at last, in
desperation.

"Reckon I kin," said the tar. "Shall I take her?"

"Yes, and if you outrun them I'll give you a hundred dollars."

"All right."

The grizzled seaman took the helm. In ten minutes it began to look blue
for Patsy and his chief. The Clio had reasserted her superiority. She
was slowly dropping the Curlew astern.

When they tacked on the other side of the river the Clio had doubled her
lead. In an hour the Curlew was half a mile behind.

"Where are ye bound?" asked the old tar.

"There's a vessel anchored in the harbor. I'll show you where. You're
to put me aboard and keep still about it. The hundred is yours, and as
much more to go with it."

They were nearly abreast the Battery, when suddenly the police-boat was
seen heading toward them.

"That's the 'Patrol,'" said Deever. "Give her a wide berth."

Instead of complying, the boatman put his helm over, and stood straight
toward the tug.

"Here!" cried Deever; "what does this mean?"

"It means," said the boatman, "that you're my prisoner, Patrick Deever.
I am Nick Carter."

Ten minutes later they were both aboard the police-boat, and in another
hour Nick had redeemed his pledge to produce Patrick Deever alive before
the superintendent.

"I'd have had him, anyway," said Patsy, afterward. "He turned on me in
the woods up there in Nyack and knocked me down, and tied me.

"He thought I was done, but I wasn't. I was just going for a tug when
you ran him aboard the police-boat.

"At any rate," he said in conclusion, "it's some satisfaction to know
that it was you, and not he, that outsailed me."

The two Deevers were punished in due course for conspiracy, and Flint
for perjury.

"On the whole," said Superintendent Byrnes to Nic