"Which way was she headed when you last had information?" asked Walter.
"Southeast," was the reply, "and she isn"t far ahead of us now. By crowding on speed we can overtake her by morning."
"Hear that, Joe?" cried Jack. "Do your best now!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" was the reply.
"Have you gasoline for a long run?" asked the lieutenant.
"Yes," Jack answered. "We filled the tanks at St. Kitts. But won"t you come below, and we"ll arrange for your comfort."
"And do let me make you a cup of tea!" begged Cora. "I know you Englishmen are so fond of it--"
"Well, we get rather out of the habitat sea," was the reply, "but I should be glad of some--if it isn"t too much trouble."
Through the gathering dusk, the advent of which was hastened by the coming storm, the Tartar heaved her way over the tumbling waters.
Night came, and still the storm did not break. The lieutenant proved a good seaman, and, under his direction the motor boat kept on through the hours of darkness. The motor girls did not rest much, nor did Walter or Jack.
As morning came, the storm broke in all its fury--being little short, in violence, of a West Indian hurricane. On through the mist, through the smother of foam, over the big greenish-blue waves scudded the Tartar, the lieutenant, in oilskins, standing in the bows, peering ahead for a sight of the steamer.
And, at noon, following a fierce burst of wind, he give a cry.
"What is it?" asked Jack, struggling toward.
"Ship ahead! I think it is the Ramona!" was the answer.
CHAPTER XXVII
SENOR RAMO
Clinging to the life-lines that had been stretched along the deck, Jack made his way to a partly-sheltered spot near which the lieutenant stood.
"Where is she?" asked Jack, fairly shouting the words into the officer"s ear, for the noise of the storm was such as to make this necessary.
"Right ahead!" was the answer. "Look when we go up on the next crest."
One moment the Tartar was down in the hollow of the waves, and the next on the top of the swell, and it was only on the latter occasion that a glimpse ahead could be had.
"Now"s your chance!" cried Lieutenant Walling to Jack. "Look!"
Eagerly Cora"s brother peered through the mist, wiping the salty spray from his eyes. Just ahead, wallowing in the trough of the sea, as though she were only partly under control, was a steamer.
"I see her!" Jack shouted, and then the Tartar, went down in the hollow between two waves again, and he could glimpse only the seething water as it hissed past under the force of the wind.
"I think it"s the Ramona--I"m not sure," was the lieutenant"s next remark.
"What are you going to do about it?" Jack wanted to know.
"Hang on as long as I can," was the grim reply. "She doesn"t look as though she were good for much more, and we are."
"Yes, we seem to be making it pretty well," Jack answered.
Indeed the staunch little Tartar was more than living up to her name.
She was buoyant, and there was a power and thrust to her screw that kept her head on to the heavy seas, which allowed her to ride them.
The chase was now on, and a chase it was, for soon after sighting the steamer ahead of them, Lieutenant Walling, by means of powerful gla.s.ses, had made sure that she was the Ramona, and, without doubt, in charge of the mutineers, unless, indeed, the half of the crew opposed to them, had risen, and taken matters into their own hands.
"But we"ll soon find out," said the lieutenant, grimly.
"How?"" asked Cora, for, the officer had come down into the cabin.
"Can you board her now?"
"Hardly, in this blow, Miss Kimball. But we can hang on, and get them as soon as it lets up a little."
"Won"t they get away from us?" Bess wanted to know. She, as well as her more fragile sister, had thoroughly entered into the spirit of the chase now.
"I think we can more than hold our own with them," answered the lieutenant. "You have a very fast craft here, and owing to the fact that they haven"t much coal, and that they have probably suffered some damage, we won"t let them get away very easily. We can hold on, I think."
"Then you won"t try to run up alongside now?" Walter wanted to know.
"Indeed not! It would be dangerous. She rolls like a porpoise in a seaway, and she"d crush us like an egg sh.e.l.l if we got too close.
All we can do is to hold off a bit, until this blows out. And it can"t last very long at this season of the year. Storms never do."
For all the hopeful prediction of the young officer, this blow showed no signs of an early abatement. The wind seemed to increase, rather than diminish and the seas were still very high.
Through it all the Tartar behaved well. Joe, with Slim Jim, the faithful negro, to help, kept the motors up to their work, and Walters Jack and the lieutenant took turns steering, for it was too much to ask Joe or Jim to do this in addition to their other work.
The afternoon was waning, and it was evident that there would be another early night, for the clouds were thick. Walter and Jack had gone up on deck, while the lieutenant remained in the cabin, taking some hot tea which Cora had prepared for him. A warm feeling of friendship sprung up between the young officer and our travelers.
Inez was not feeling well, and had gone to lie down in her berth, though it was anything but comfortable there, since the boat rolled and pitched so.
"I say!" called Jack, down a partly opened port into the cabin, "I think you"d better come up here, Lieutenant."
"Oh, he hasn"t had his tea yet!" objected Cora.
"That doesn"t matter--if something is up!" was the hasty rejoinder, and, leaving the table, the revenue officer hastened up on deck, b.u.t.toning his oilskins as he went.
"What is it?" he asked of the two young men.
"She seems to be turning," said Jack, "thought you"d better know."
"That"s right. I"m glad you called me. Yes, she is changing her course," said Lieutenant Walling. "I wonder what she"s up to?"
The Ramona--Jack and Walter had made out her name under her stem rail now--was still slowly wallowing in the sea. She appeared to have lost headway, for she was moving very slowly, having barely steerage-way on. The Tartar had no trouble in keeping up to her.