“Hey!  There went one the other way,” he cried to Jack.

“That so?” replied Jack anxiously.  “There is something up here, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

He slowed down even more, and, striking a match, lighted the searchlight, which, until this moment, he had not deemed advisable.

As the light flashed over the water, the lad made out another small motorboat dead ahead, upon which signs of life became apparent.  Jack saw figures gesticulating violently; then the boat headed directly for the one occupied by the two boys.

“Guns, Frank!” said Jack quietly.  “They are coming at us.”

“Leave it to me,” replied Frank.  “You run the boat.  I’ll do the rest.”

“Don’t shoot unless you have to,” warned Jack.

Frank made no reply.

Jack kept the light full upon the approaching boat.  He could see several oilskin-clad figures and that was all; and then came a hail from the oncoming boat.

“What do you want here?”

The query was in English.  Jack answered the hail.

“What are you doing here yourself?” he demanded.  “We are British officers.  I command you to surrender.”

“More likely German officers,” was the response.  “Heave to now.  I’m coming aboard you.”

“If you do you’ll get a warm welcome,” replied Jack.

He stopped the boat and drew his own revolvers.

“Stand back!” he cried, as the other boat came closer.

In the glint of the searchlight the men aboard the other boat made out the boys’ uniforms.  The boat slowed down and the men talked among themselves.

“They wear British uniforms,” said one in a low voice.

“That’s no sign they are English,” said another.

“Tell ’em to give the countersign,” said a third.

Another hail came from the boat.

“Pass the countersign,” it said.

“I don’t know any countersign,” replied Jack, and would have said more, had not a voice from the other boat interrupted him.

“I thought not; hands up now or you are dead men.  Quick!”

Jack made his decision in a moment.  Much as he would have liked to fight it out, he determined upon a wiser course.

“Hands up, Frank,” he said quietly.  “They’ve got the drop on us.”

He raised his hands in the air.

Not so Frank.

“They won’t get me without a fight,” declared the lad angrily, and, raising his voice, he cried: 

“Come and get me, if you want me.”

At the same moment he raised his revolver and fired.

“Here,” cried Jack angrily, “don’t be a fool.  Give me that gun.”

He seized Frank’s wrist and wrenched the revolver from his grasp.

The latter turned on his chum angrily.

“What do you mean by that?” he demanded.  “Have you turned coward, that you surrender to a couple of Germans without a fight?”