“Bring the western vessel on the port bow, captain,” he ordered quietly. “You’re right, O’Neil, it’s a dangerous game to be too rash. If those are real scouts, they’re good for twenty-five knots, and can catch us easily. They have probably already seen our smoke.” “Why not turn to the eastward and run for it?” Sydney suggested anxiously. Phil did not answer; he was examining the chart, laying the parallel rulers between the “Sylvia’s” plotted position and Hongkong. He carried it to the compass card printed on the chart and read the course--S. W. from their present position to Hongkong. “Let her go S. W. magnetic, captain,” he ordered calmly. “That will bring us up to the north cape of Formosa, and then we’ll run down close to the China coast and get smoother water.” “What is this idiotic proceeding!” The exclamation in Impey’s voice, now choked with passion and fear, made the midshipmen turn apprehensively. “You’ll have us all killed. Turn her out to sea and let’s get out of this as soon as possible,” he cried in alarmed earnestness, throwing the timid Chinaman from the wheel and attempting to put the wheel hard over to run out to the eastward. O’Neil’s hand held the spokes rigidly, while he looked appealingly for orders to forcibly eject the intruder. “Hold her steady, Captain Bailey,” Phil ordered decidedly. “Mr. Impey,” he added calmly, “I hope you won’t make it necessary for us to use force to restrain you on your own yacht. My mind is made up, and even if we are to be captured, I’m determined to carry the plan out to the end. “Slow to twelve knots, Captain Bailey,” Phil commanded quietly. “We must endeavor to appear to be only what we resemble, an English gunboat bound for Hongkong. Our twenty-two knots speed might excite suspicion.” “It’s suicidal!” Impey exclaimed. “Can’t you see that if that is the Japanese fleet, it will send a ship to look us over, and when it comes near enough the deception must be discovered.” Impey’s words struck both Sydney and O’Neil as being quite sensible. They looked to Phil to see the effect upon him of Impey’s words, but the lad appeared outwardly unmoved. “If we should turn away now,” Phil said stolidly, “we would arouse their suspicion and would be chased, and if those vessels on the bow are twenty-five knot cruiser battle-ships or scout cruisers we would be soon overtaken. If we hold our course between the two scouts and the main body of the fleet, and allay suspicion by using our wireless, maybe the Japanese will not believe it necessary to pay us a closer visit.” Phil’s companions were deep in thought, weighing the plausibility of the two plans, while Phil continued to gaze to the westward through the yacht captain’s binoculars. “That’s a bank of fog over there, captain, isn’t it?” he asked calmly, for he had taken this into account when he had altered the course. Captain Bailey looked long and earnestly, finally nodding his head.