ill be ready to show ye every nook an' corner
o' these-here waters; an' if that skunk ain't got out of 'em or gone to
the bottom, we'll git him--an' git him right!"

After leaving Norfolk, _The Hialdo_ had covered many miles. Arthur Van
Dusen when he acted, moved with deliberation as well as speed. Already,
on the way down, every avenue of escape had been blocked. It would have
been impossible for _The Isabel_ to escape over the route by which the
pursuers had come. She would have been seized the moment she showed at
any port. The thoroughness of these precautionary measures was the
reason why it was not until now that _The Hialdo_ had dropped anchor at
Beaufort Inlet.

The only area that remained unsearched was the Core Sound section. The
searchers had taken advantage of the night, when there was little else
that they could do, to run down to the Inlet in order to find out if the
yacht had passed out to sea through the channel.

They were reasonably certain now that the Doctor and the young woman
were not a great way off. Van Dusen was confident of speedily running
down the culprit, and he was exultant over the prospect. But Roy was
still tortured with anxiety concerning the safety of the girl he loved.

Before coming out of the shack to go aboard _The Hialdo_, Ichabod took
time to tidy up his person a little. This, for the sufficient reason
that they were going first to Beaufort, where it might be that he would
encounter Sarah Porter. It would never do for her to see him except
properly "spruced up" for a trip to town. There was, in addition, the
fact that he was about to go aboard a handsome yacht, where, as he knew,
everybody went about habitually "dressed up." As he took a parting
glance into his tiny bit of mirror, the old fisherman indulged in a
self-satisfied smirk, and spoke aloud.

"I'd be willin' to bet that when them fine fellers gits to be as old as
me, they can't tell as how ten single women kissed 'em all in one day,
an' another one, by cracky, made eyes an' jest didn't darst!"

Having thus said, Ichabod hurried off to his visitors, and a minute
later was following them up the ladder to the deck of _The Hialdo_. Van
Dusen had taken on a pilot at Ocracoke, so that they had no trouble in
following the intricate round-about ship's channel to the town.

Captain Ichabod directed the place of anchorage. This was in the small
channel directly in front of the Inlet Hotel, where Sarah Porter reigned
supreme