“Where do you advise putting in?”

Captain Barforth thought for a moment.

“I think we had better run over to Nassau, which is less than sixty miles from here.  Nassau, as perhaps you know, is the capital city of the Bahamas, and has quite some shipping and we’ll stand a good chance there of getting the right ship’s—­carpenters to do the work.”

After some talk, it was decided to steer for Nassau, and the course of the Rainbow was changed accordingly.  They now ran with even greater caution than before, and a strong searchlight was turned on at the bow, the surplus power from the engine being used for that purpose.

As my young readers may know, Nassau is located on New Providence Island, about two hundred miles east of the lower coast of Florida.  It is under British rule and contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants.  It is more or less of a health resort and is visited by many tourists, consequently there are several good hotels and many means of spending a few days there profitably.

The run to Nassau was made without further mishaps, and immediately on arriving the steam yacht was placed in the hands of some builders who promised to make the needed repairs without delay.  The entire crew remained on board, as did Aleck Pop, but the Rovers and their friends put up at a leading hotel for the time being.

After the run on shipboard from Philadelphia to the Bahamas, the ladies and girls were glad enough to set foot again on land.  After one day of quietness at the hotel the party, went out carriage riding, and, of course, the boys went along.  They saw not a few unusual sights, and were glad they had their cameras with them.

“We’ll have a dandy lot of pictures by the time we get home,” said Sam.

“There is one picture I want more than any other,” said Tom.

“One of Nellie, I suppose,” and Sam winked.

“Oh, I’ve got that already,” answered the fun-loving Rover unabashed.

“What’s that you want?” asked Songbird.

“A picture of that treasure cave with us loading the treasure on the yacht.”

“Now you are talking, Tom!” cried his older brother.  “We all want that.  I am sorry we have been delayed here.”

“How long vos ve going to sthay here?” questioned Hans.

“The repairs will take the best part of a week, so the ship builders said.”

“Ain’t you afraid dot Sid Merrick got ahead of you?”

“I don’t know.  He may be on his way now, or he may not have started yet from New York.”

“Oh, I hope we don’t meet Merrick, or Sobber either!” cried Dora.

On the outskirts of the town was a fine flower garden where roses of unusual beauty were grown.  One day the girls and ladies visited this and Dick and Songbird went along.  In the meantime Tom and Sam walked down to the docks, to see how the repairs to the Rainbow were progressing, and also to look at the vessels going out and coming in.