Wink returned to the deck, followed by Harry as far as the companion, and looked forward at the _Follow Me_. Since he had gone below the positions of the boats had altered noticeably, and now, had he wished, he might easily have put a bullet through the mahogany door beyond the cockpit. Steve was bearing seaward a little, intending to run up on the starboard side of the black cruiser. "I'll bet they're doing a whole lot of thinking about now," said "Brownie." "Guess I'll go down and sit on the floor again. They'll be able to plug us in another minute or so." "You'd all better beat it," said Steve. "If the bullets begin to fly again someone will get hurt." Slowly but certainly the bow of the _Adventurer_ crept up on the _Follow Me's_ stern. Some sixty feet of water divided them. Beyond the black cruiser lay the long yellow beach, dazzling in the noonday sunlight. Suddenly the _Follow Me's_ bow turned straight for the breakers and Steve gave a cry. CHAPTER XV SURRENDER "They're going to run her ashore!" shouted Steve. He slid out the clutch, throttled down the engine and swung the boat's nose to starboard as the others piled back to the deck. The _Adventurer_ swept around in a long circle while the _Follow Me_, churning the shoaling water into white froth, ran straight for the shore. "Gosh, what a mess!" groaned Harry Corwin. "We'll never get her off there!" Steve made no answer, nor did the others. They were all watching that wild rush of the black cruiser. On and on she went, rising and falling with the gentle swells, until it looked as though she must surely be churning the sand with her hurrying screw. Suddenly the cabin doors flew open and three men, one hatless and with a white towel bound around his head, leaped out and scampered along the roof to the bow. Wink raised his revolver, but Steve pulled his arm down. "Don't!" he said. "Let them go if they will." At that instant the _Follow Me_ faltered, stopped, and went on again for another yard or so as a breaking wave rushed under her keel, and then rolled over to starboard and subsided so, her propeller still beating and her stern slowly working around. Into the two feet of water dropped the trio on the bow and, keeping the _Follow Me_ between them and the enemy, scuttled to land, and then, once on the hard sand, ran as hard as their legs would take them up the beach to the north. Wink sent one shot hurtling after them, just, as he explained afterwards, to encourage them, and Steve, having cautiously edged the _Adventurer_ as near shore as he dared, gave his orders hurriedly.