"She may be sent on the jump--and within a few hours. I have orders to take you to sea at once and find the _Kennebunk_. Our operator is sending out feeler messages for the battleship right now."
"Then you will do nothing toward looking into this nest of trouble-makers on the island--if there is such--immediately?"
"And then," said Mr. MacMasters seriously, "if you do stir up these snakes, look for a fellow named Franz Linder. He is wanted in Elmvale, up there in New England, for blowing up a dam, destroying munition factories and drowning twelve innocent people. We'll be glad, Morgan here, and I, to hear about the capture of that scoundrel."
The revenue cutter was a speedy craft, and by midforenoon she was far outside the string of islands near which the crew of the _Kennebunk's_ steamer under Ensign MacMasters had experienced so many adventures.
The wireless operator picked up the superdreadnaught at last. She was two hundred miles away, and when she gave her course to the cutter the boys noticed that it occasioned a deal of excitement upon the quarterdeck.
Unless the message is spread on the notice-board by the door of the wireless room, the members of the crew of any vessel are not likely to know what is going on in the air. The operator, like the usual telegraph operator, is bound to secrecy.
"There's something up besides the blue peter, just as sure as you're a foot high, Whistler," Al Torrance declared eagerly. "I'd give a punched nickel to know just what it is."
Having nothing to occupy their time on the cutter, the four Navy boys naturally gave their attention to rumor and gossip. They believed the _Kennebunk_ was no longer headed up the coast; but where she was going was a question.
"Crickey!" groaned Al, "if she gets into any muss without our being aboard, I'll be a sore one."
"They wouldn't be so mean," wailed Ikey, "as to have a fight without us being in it. Oi, oi! Oi, oi!"
"Nothing but subs to fight over here, kid, if any," the older boy said. "Stop your keening."
"Say, how do we know where the big fight will be pulled off?" demanded Frenchy excitedly.
"What big fight?" queried Whistler, unpuckering his lips.
"The one they've been talking about for months. You know, everybody's said the Huns would come out some time. They're bound to give us a chance at their Navy."