As he shifted the wheel he heard a cry behind him, and at the same time a hoarse, domineering voice called out: 

“Here, what do you mean, changing your course that way?  Look out, or I’ll run you down!  Get out of my way, you land-lubber, you!”

Startled, Ned and Tom turned.  They saw, rushing up on them from astern, a powerful red motor boat, at the wheel of which sat a stout man, with a very florid face and a commanding air.

“Get out of my way!” he cried.  “I can’t stop so short!  Look out, or I’ll run you down!”

Tom, with a fierce feeling of resentment at the fellow, was about to shift the course of the Kilo, but he was too late.

A moment later there came a smashing blow on the stern port quarter and the Kilo heeled over at a dangerous angle, while, with a rending, splintering sound of wood, the big red motorboat swept on past Tom and Ned, her rubstreak grinding along the side of the Kilo.

CHAPTER V

SHARP WORDS

“Great Scott, Tom!  What happened?”

“I know as much as you, Ned.  That fellow ran us down, that’s all.”

“Are we leaking?” and with this question Ned sprang from his place near the bow, and looked toward the stern, where the heaviest blow had been struck.

The Kilo had swung back to an even keel again, but was still bobbing about on the water.

“Any hole there?” cried Tom, as he swung the wheel over to point his craft toward shore, in case she showed a tendency to sink.

“I can’t see any hole,” answered Ned.  “But water is coming in here.”

“Then there’s a leak all right!  Probably some of the seams are opened, or it may be coming in around the shaft stuffing-box.  Here, Ned, take the wheel, and I’ll start up the engine again,” for with the blow the motor had stopped.

“What are you going to do?” asked Ned, as he again made his way forward.

“Take her to shore, of course.  It’s deep out here and I don’t want her to go down at this point.”

“Say, what do you think of that fellow, anyhow, Tom?”

“I wouldn’t like to tell you.  Look, he’s coming back.”

This was so, for, as the boys watched, the big red motor boat had swung about in a circle and was headed for them.

“I’ll tell him what I think of him, at any rate,” murmured Tom, as he bent over his motor.  “And, later on, I’ll let the lawyers talk to him.”

“You mean you’ll sue him, Tom?”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to let him run into me and spring a leak, for nothing.  That won’t go with me!”

By this time Tom had the motor started, but he throttled it down so that it just turned the propeller.  With it running at full speed there was considerable vibration, and this would further open the leaking seams.  So much water might thus be let in that the craft could not be gotten ashore.