the Follow Me.  Steve and Phil donned proper shore-going togs and tumbled into the dingey.  The Follow Me was totally deserted, which accounted for the fact that, while their noisy arrival had aroused not a little interest on other craft, the Follow Me had received them very coldly.  They found some of the party at the hotel and the others rounded up later.  Everyone was flatteringly glad to see the new arrivals again, but none more so than Perry.  Perry was absolutely pathetic in his greetings and refused to let Steve out of his sight for an instant.

“I’m quite taken by surprise,” declared Steve.  “I knew you loved me devotedly, Perry, but this is—­this is really touching!”

Perry grew a trifle red and coughed.  “Er—­well—­I hope so,” he blurted.

“You hope so?  Hope what?”

“Hope it’s touching,” explained the other, grinning.  “You see, I’m flat broke, Steve, and so is everyone else, or pretty near, and if you could lend me a couple of dollars—­”

“I feared it wasn’t all just affection,” sighed Steve, reaching for his purse.  “But it was worth the price, Perry!”

“Much obliged!  You—­you might make it three, if you don’t mind.  I owe Han fifty cents and Ossie a quarter—­no, thirty-five—­”

“Here’s five, you spendthrift.  Let me have it back as soon as you can, though, for I’m down near the bottom myself.”

“I will, Steve.  I’ve sent for some and it ought to be along in a day or two.  Money doesn’t last any time here!”

Friends and acquaintances made during their former visit had done everything possible to make the boys’ stay so very more than pleasant, and when the matter of going on was introduced the suggestion met with scant sympathy.  However, Steve was not at all averse to a week or so of lotus eating and, having satisfied his conscience by the proposal, he settled down, to enjoy himself with the rest.  His friends ashore were lavish with hospitality, while “Globbins the Speed Fiend,” as Perry had dubbed the freckle-faced proprietor of the restless automobile, was indefatigably attentive.  A second letter from Neil, forwarded from one port of call to another in their wake, reached them one day, and they composed a reply between them and all hands signed it.  Neil was having rather a dull time of it, they gathered, and they hoped their letter would cheer him up a bit.

At last, when they had, after two postponements, fixed a day of departure, a storm that tied up shipping all along the North Atlantic Coast for four days caused a final delay, and consequently it was well toward the last of August when they said good-bye and set forth for Squirrel Island.  No one particularly cared to visit Squirrel Island save Han, who had friends there, but as there was still a full week at their disposal they were in no great hurry and one port was as good as another.  They remained there a day and then made Portland.  At Portland supplies were put in, and one Wednesday morning they picked up the anchor at a little after six o’clock and started for Provincetown with the fine determination to cover the distance of approximately a hundred and twenty-five miles before they sat down to supper.  That they didn’t do so was no fault of either the Adventurer or the Follow Me.