"All ready?"
"Yes--all right here."
"Say, you," the man on the yacht cried through the skylight, not
venturing to show his head. "You 'd better go away."
"And you 'd better stay below and keep quiet," was the response.
"We 'll take care of ourselves. You do the same."
"If I was only out of this, I 'd show you!" he threatened.
"Lucky for you you 're not," responded the boy on the _Reindeer_;
and thereat the man kept quiet.
"Here they come!" said 'Frisco Kid suddenly to Joe.
The two skiffs shot out of the darkness and came alongside. Some kind
of an altercation was going on, as French Pete's voice attested.
"No, no!" he cried. "Put it on ze _Dazzler_. Ze _Reindeer_ she sail too
fast-a, and run away, oh, so queeck, and never more I see it. Put it on
ze _Dazzler_. Eh? Wot you say?"
"All right then," Red Nelson agreed. "We 'll whack up afterwards. But,
say, hurry up. Out with you, lads, and heave her up! My arm 's broke."
The men tumbled out, ropes were cast inboard, and all hands, with the
exception of Joe, tailed on. The shouting of men, the sound of oars, and
the rattling and slapping of blocks and sails, told that the men on shore
were getting under way for the pursuit.
"Now!" Red Nelson commanded. "All together! Don't let her come back or
you 'll smash the skiff. There she takes it! A long pull and a strong
pull! Once again! And yet again! Get a turn there, somebody, and take
a spell.
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