"Luff it is, Rob. And let me tell you right now that if this head wind keeps on growing stronger, we're going to have it nip and tuck to get home before dark sets in. These November, days have a quick end, you know. Steady now, everybody; we'll have to come about." "On the next leg, Merritt, run in as close to the shore as you can," continued the boy who was handling the sheet of the sailboat, and who seemed to be in command, though he had given up his place at the helm to a comrade. "Just what I'll do, Skipper Rob. Here, Andy, and you, Tubby, swing over to the la'board in a hurry, now, and help hold her down. You're the best ballast we've got aboard, Tubby." The stout boy who seemed so well named, for he was built on the order of a tub of butter, hastened to change his position as the boom of the sailboat swung over, and the little craft with a jump started on a new tack, this time heading for the mainland. "Say, you want to make sure and clear that point over there!" he sang out as he sprawled along the upper port side of the craft like a great crab, owing to a sudden lurch of the boat. "Going to do it as easy as to turn your hand over," replied the boy at the rudder; "but what makes you say that, Tubby?" "Oh! I reckon now there might be some fellers got a duck blind on that point, which is said to be the best along the bay," replied the other. "Leastways I noticed a whole raft of stools dancing up and down on the waves the last time we ran in close to the shore." "Good for you, Tubby," remarked the boy called Rob, who was clinging steadily to the sheet, with the strain mostly relieved by the fact that it passed through a hole in the stout cleat; "it's plain that you've got your eyes with you this trip, and don't mean to be caught napping. There are two fellows in a blind over on the point; I saw them watching us the last time we ran in; and they acted as though they were afraid we'd anchor and spoil all their evening shoot when the ducks are moving again. But never fear, we're going to clear the point by a wide margin this time." "It was a good thing school let out so early to-day, boys," remarked the lad who up to now had not spoken, and who seemed to answer to the name of Andy; "and that Rob invited the rest of us to go with him after that half bushel of big oysters his folks want for dinner to-morrow." "What makes you talk that way, Andy?" asked Rob, wondering if the other had also been keeping his eyes about him and noticing things. "This is Friday afternoon, and if we hadn't gone to-day what do you think would hinder our taking a little spin up the bay in the morning?" "Oh! you never can count on the wind around Hampton," replied the other; "chances are, when you want it most of all, it gives you the go-by. And besides, Rob, I've been watching that sky up there. Look how it's mottled, will you? I've always heard that that sort of clouds meant a storm." Rob laughed as though rather pleased.