“Head her over, Ned,” cried Tom, when he found he had sufficient headway.  “Steer for Ramsey’s dock.  There’s a marine railway next to him, and I can haul her out for repairs.”

“That’s the talk, Tom!” cried his chum.

By this time the big, red motor boat was close beside Tom’s craft.

The man at the wheel, a stout-bodied and stout-faced man, with a complexion nearly the color of his boat, glared at the two young men.

“What do you fellows mean?” called out the man, in deep booming tones—­tones that he tried to make imposing, but which, to the trained ears of Tom and Ned, sounded only like the enraged bellow of some bully.  “What do you mean, I say?  Getting on my course like that!”

Ned could see Tom biting his lips, and clenching his hands to keep down his temper.  But it was too much.  To be run into, and then insulted, was more than Tom could stand.

“Look here!” he cried, standing up and facing the red-faced man, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care.  But I’ll tell you one thing—­you’ll pay for the damage you did to my boat!”

“I’ll pay for it?  Come, that’s pretty good!  Ha!  Ha!” laughed the self-important man.  “Why, I was thinking of making a complaint against you for crossing my course that way.  If I find my boat is damaged I shall certainly do so anyhow.  Have we suffered any damage, Snuffin?” and he looked back at a grimy-faced mechinician who was oiling the big, throbbing motor, which was now running with the clutch out.

“No, sir, I don’t think we’re damaged, sir,” answered the man, deferentially.

“Well, it’s a lucky thing for these land-lubbers that we aren’t.  I should certainly sue them.  The idea of crossing my course the way they did.  Weren’t they in the wrong, Snuffin?”

The man hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Tom and Ned, as though asking their indulgence.

“Well, I asked you a question, Snuffin!” exclaimed the red-faced man sharply.

“Yes—­yes, sir, they shouldn’t have turned the way they did,” answered the man, in a low voice.

“Well, of all the nerve!” murmured Tom, and stopped his motor.  Then, stepping to the side of his disabled and leaking boat, he exclaimed: 

“Look here!  Either you folks don’t know anything about navigation rules, or you aren’t heeding them.  I had a perfect right to turn and go ashore when I did, for I found my engine was out of order, and I wanted to fix it.  I blew the usual signal on the whistle, showing my intention to turn off my course, and if you had been listening you would have heard it.”

“If you had even been watching you would have seen me shift, and then, coming on at the speed you did, it was your place to warn me by a whistle, so that I could keep straight on until you had passed me.”

“But you did not.  You kept right on and ran into me, and the only wonder is that you didn’t sink me.  Talk about me getting in your way!  Why, you deliberately ran me down after I had given the right signal.  I’ll make a complaint against you, that’s what I will.”