“You couldn’t have done less, Ensign,” replied Dr. Barnard, courteously.  “You couldn’t have been more courteous.”

“Are we at liberty to proceed on our way, sir?” asked Captain Walford, as the young acting ensign went over the side.

“I shall have to ask you to take the signal for that from the ‘Sudbury,’” Eph answered.

On the gunboat’s quarter deck, following Ensign Somers’s report, there was an anxious conference.

“If this is the craft we’ve been following all the time,” muttered Jack Benson, “we’ve a lot of hunting yet ahead of us.”

“Shall I signal the schooner permission to proceed, sir?” asked Ensign Fullerton.

“By all means.”

Darkness came down over the ocean while Lieutenant Jack was sending a wireless despatch through the air to the Navy Department.

CHAPTER XV

“THE RIGHT BOAT AND THE RIGHT CREW!”

Three hours later, under a new order from Washington, the gunboat’s launch stole in alongside of a second schooner that had been pursued, overhauled and brought to a standstill.

This craft, however, proved to be a Nova Scotian vessel, with papers all right, a cargo beyond suspicion and no sign of the fugitive Gray aboard.

When news of this second failure had been flashed to Washington, and twenty minutes more had passed, the instructions came back out of the ether: 

“Cruise slowly about where you are.  Await new instructions, which will go forward to you as soon as we have fresh, reliable information from any source.  See that your own search light is freely used through the night.”

“‘Puss in the Corner,’ at sea,” muttered Lieutenant Benson.  “And we ain’t even find a corner.”

An hour later the young commander of the “Sudbury” turned in.  Hal was on the bridge.

The gunboat cruised along lazily at about eight knots an hour.  For some time Hal paced the bridge indolently, while the sailor lookout, forward, manipulated the searchlight, sending its beam in wide circles over the waters.

It was within half an hour of the time of calling the new watch, in fact, when the bow watch reported: 

“Sail dead ahead, sir!”

Barely more than a topsail could be made out, even through the marine glass of the young watch officer.

“Hold the light on her; we’ll overtake and examine her, anyway,” was Ensign Hastings’s quick decision.  From the bridge he gave orders for the engine room to go ahead with increased speed.  While the gunboat was bounding off after the stranger, time came to call the port watch.  Eph Somers came up to the bridge, somewhat sleepy.

“Same old story, I guess,” yawned Eph.  “Have you passed the word to the executive office?”

“Not yet,” Hal replied.  “I didn’t believe it worth while to break the slumber of Mr. Fullerton, or of the commander, until we got close to see whether the stranger looks in the least like the ‘Juanita.’”