means of a generator and storage battery. An eight-foot tender rested on
chocks atop the main cabin. The boat carried no signal mast, but
flag-poles at bow and stern and abaft the bridge deck frame held the
Union Jack, the yacht ensign and the club burgee. All in all, the
_Adventurer_ was a smart and finely appointed craft, and a capable one,
too. Steve's father had had her built only a little more than a year ago
and she had seen but scant service. In the inelegant but expressive
phraseology of Perry, "she was a rip-snorting corker of a boat." The
consensus of opinion was to the effect that Mr. Chapman was "a peach to
let them have it," and there was an unuttered impression that that
kind-hearted gentleman was taking awful chances!

For, after all, except that Steve had had a brief week or so on the boat
the preceding Summer and that Joe had taken two days of instruction in
gasoline engine operation, not a member of the crew knew much of the
work ahead. Still, George Hanford had operated a twelve-foot motor
dingey at one time, Phil Street had sailed a knockabout and all had an
average amount of common-sense, and it seemed that, with luck, they
might somehow manage to escape death by drowning! Mr. Chapman surely
must have had a good deal of faith in Steve and his companions or he
would never have consented to their operating the cruiser without the
aid of a seasoned navigator. As for the boys themselves, they
anticipated many difficulties and some hazards, but, with the confidence
of youth, they expected to "muddle through," and, as Neil said, what
they didn't know now they soon would.

At exactly seven minutes past eleven by the ship's clock the
_Adventurer_ gave a prolonged screech and, moorings cast off, edged her
way out of the basin and dipped her nose in the laughing waters of the
bay, embarked at last on a voyage that was destined to fully vindicate