"Not more than seventy at ordinary speed, I guess. She's hard on gas." "Good! Then she'd have to put in at Gloucester or Newburyport or somewhere." "Unless she ducked into Boston Harbour," said Steve. "I dare say she could tuck herself away somewhere there quite safely. A coat of white paint would change her looks completely." "That's possible," agreed Phil, "but painting a boat of that size would take a couple of days, wouldn't it? It doesn't seem to me that they'd want to take the chance." "Then your idea is that they're on their way to Portland?" "Somewhere up there. They'd argue that we wouldn't be likely to look for them so far away." "Well, here we are," said Steve. "We've got to go one way or another." The rougher water outside was making the _Adventurer_ dip and roll. "As far as I can see, Phil's theory is as good as another, or maybe better. Shall we try going north, fellows?" No one answered until, after a moment's silence, Perry remarked philosophically: "I don't believe we'll ever see her again, but we can't stop here, and we were going northward anyhow." Murmurs of agreement came from the others. The only dissentient voice was Bert Alley's. "_I_ don't see your argument," he said. "If I had swiped the _Follow Me_ I'd hike out for New York or some place like that and run her into some little old hole until I could either change her looks or sell her." "And be nabbed on the way," said Joe. "Not if I stayed at sea." "But you couldn't stay at sea if you had only twelve gallons of gasoline aboard. Wherever she's going, she will have to put in for gas before long." Phil stared thoughtfully at the chart. "I'll allow," he went on, "that she may have gone any other direction but north. For that matter, she may be anchored just around the corner somewhere. It's all more or less guesswork. But, looking at the probabilities, and they're all we've got to work on, I think north is the likeliest trail for us to take." "Right-o," said Steve, turning the wheel and pointing the boat's slim bow toward Gurnet Point, "We've got to take a chance, fellows, and this looks like the best. In the morning we'll get busy with the telegraph and tell our troubles, but just now the best we can do is keep a sharp lookout and try to think we're on the right course. I'm going to speed her up, Joe, so you might dab some more oil and grease around your old engine." "All right. You fellows will have to clear out of here, though, while I get this hatch up. Some of you might go forward and keep your eyes peeled. I don't suppose, however," he added as he pulled the engine hatch up, "that they'll show any lights on her." "Not likely to," agreed Harry Corwin. "They'll run dark, probably, until they get near a harbour. Look for anything like a boat, fellows. It's a mighty good thing we've got this moonlight."