Page:The Missing Chums.djvu/11

Rh and he sank back with a look of disgust on his face.

"Some time that boat will spring a leak and I won't believe you," he warned, settling down to his steering again.

"I'll be good," promised Chet, sitting down and looking out over the bay. "Say, there's a big brute of a motorboat coming along behind us, isn't it?"

"I'll say she's big," Frank agreed, looking back. "I don't remember ever having seen that boat around here before."

"Me neither," declared Joe. "I wonder where it came from."

The strange craft was painted a dingy gray. It was large and unwieldy and did not ride easily in the water. Although that boat was some distance in the wake of their own craft the boys could distinguish the figures of three men, all seated well up toward the front. Biff glanced back.

"It's a new one on me," he said. "I've never seen it before."

"Sure has lots of power, anyway," Chet commented. The roar of the engine could be plainly heard across the water. In spite of its clumsy appearance, the big boat ploughed ahead at good speed, and, as Bill had the Envoy, his craft, throttled down, the second boat was slowly overtaking them.