the coast. No need to go to Key West now."

"Hum-mp!" grunted Dave. "Waste time, get sick---all for nuthin'!"

"Shut up, you greasy Seminole!" muttered Vinton, and he turned away
scornfully. "All right, we will," he called to the _Petrel_. "What
you goin' to do?"

"First find out if that craft hid anything over there behind that key
where she was lying, and then follow her."

More confabbing of an unimportant and general nature followed
between Vinton and Kelsey and the man in tweeds, who was evidently
the special correspondent of some newspaper. At the end of the
conference, Kelsey called out:

"Well, I guess we'll mosey on, Lem. Goodby and good luck to you.
If you meet any smugglers in the upper 'glades or along the coast,
send word to Tampa; they'll rush a cutter with some of the Gulf police
to the spot. Keep a sharp eye on strange-looking craft, will you?"

"Aye, aye!" responded the _Arrow's_ captain, little knowing into what
adventures this pursuit of smugglers would lead him and his crew.

In a few minutes the _Petrel_ had swung about and was heading in the
direction from which the _Esperanza_ had appeared. The _Arrow_ was
left becalmed and drifting on the heavy swells of the Gulf; but her
crew, excited by the prospect of encountering freebooters of the main,
forgot to be seasick, even if they had been so inclined, and fell to
preparing their noonday meal.