“I don’t know this Scoble, except as an exceedingly stupid skipper; but of course he cannot be aware that any vessel is in pursuit of him,” suggested Captain Alcorn. “He cannot absolutely know that we are chasing him; but I feel reasonably sure the fellow will expect to be pursued.” “He knows something about the Kills where he anchored, and he may not be willing to believe that we could find any craft in which to follow him at once. It was only by a very lucky chance that the Blanche happened to be where you found her. We can conjecture a dozen courses Scoble may take, and any one of them is as likely to be correct as any other,” continued the commander of the yacht. “It must be admitted that we are entirely in the dark in regard to his movements. He has laid his course for Bermuda, or he has gone into some hiding-place on Long Island or the Jersey coast,” said Captain Ringgold. “I think there is no doubt on this point.” “I agree with you that he has done one of these two things, for he could not have done anything else. I am sorry to say I cannot leave the Blanche at your disposition any longer than to-day, for my owner ordered me to be off Twenty-third Street by one o’clock to-morrow afternoon,” added Captain Alcorn. “I have no doubt we shall be able to come to some conclusion before night,” added the other captain. “The Maud had about four hours the lead of us.” “She got the change of wind not long after midnight, and then she could have turned out her reefs,” argued the commander of the Blanche. “With a leading wind very likely she made eight knots; I don’t believe she could do any better than that.” “Thirty-two miles the start of us. We have been making twelve knots, for I have crowded her to the utmost,” said Captain Alcorn, as he took a paper and pencil from his pocket, and began to figure up the time and distances. “If the Maud is headed directly for Bermuda, she is forty-six sea miles to the southward and eastward of Sandy Hook, at the most. My dead reckoning would give us thirty-six miles, or only ten astern of the Maud. In three hours more we shall either see her, or be ready to give her up on this course.” “Precisely so, captain,” returned the other nautical authority. “Then we shall be satisfied that the Maud has not sailed directly for Bermuda.” “Then a course to the west south-west will take us to Barnegat Inlet, where we may obtain information at the light-house on the south side of the entrance, as to whether or not such a schooner as the Maud has gone in this morning.” This plan was adopted by the two captains. Louis was fast asleep in one of the berths in the cabin. He had been up till half-past three in the morning when the yacht got under way, and he was well-nigh exhausted. He was terribly anxious about his guardian-mother; but he had some consolation in the knowledge that Felix McGavonty was with her, and that he would protect and defend her from all harm.