Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: ... the flier ... now came roaring ... directly above the boys’ heads. (_Page 138_)]
Author of “The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol,” “The Boy Scouts on the Range,” “The Boy Scouts’ Mountain Camp,” “The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam,” “The Boy Scouts at the Panama Canal,” etc.
A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York Printed in U. S. A.
CHAPTER PAGE I. Sea Scouts at Play 5 II. The Spearing of the Sturgeon 18 III. Jack Curtiss Reappears 32 IV. Paul Perkins’ Motor Scooter 43 V. The Boy Who Made the Wheels Go Round 54 VI. Two Mysterious Men 65 VII. How a Secret Passage Was Used 74 VIII. An Unexpected Encounter 84 IX. Wherein Captain Hudgins’ Bees Swarm 95 X. Mr. Stonington Hunt—Schemer 106 XI. The Army Airship 120 XII. Tubby Escapes an Orange Bomb 133 XIII. What Happened in the Woods 145 XIV. Mr. Hunt Delivers a Telegram 156 XV. A Boy Who Flew 170 XVI. “There’s Many a Slip——” 182 XVII. Fire! 193 XVIII. Jack Uses a File 208 XIX. The Great Race 221 XX. A Schooner in Trouble 232 XXI. Motor-Scooters to the Rescue 246 XXII. Jim Dugan Again 257 XXIII. A Chase in the Night 272 XXIV. A Bolt from the Blue 289
Commodore Wingate of the Hampton Yacht Club gave the word in a sharp, tense voice. The pistol he held extended above his head cracked sharply. The crowds massed upon the clubhouse verandas and in the vicinity broke into hoarse cheers as the tension of waiting was relieved.
Before the puff of blue smoke from the discharged pistol had been wafted away by a light breeze, two eighteen-foot, double-ended whaleboats shot out from either side of the float. For ten minutes or more they had been teetering there, like leashed greyhounds. This was while the final words of instruction were being given. Now the suspense of the preliminaries was over, and the “Spearing the Sturgeon” contest, between the Hawk and Eagle Patrols of Hampton, was on.
Bow and bow the two white craft hissed over the sparkling, blue waters of the inlet. From the clubhouse porch, from the beach, from the sand dunes of the farther side of the Inlet, and from the row of automobiles parked along the beach—which had come from all parts of Long Island—the strivers were cheered.