CHAPTER XIX

 The search for the schooner

“Anyway, we have got the name of the schooner,” remarked Sam, after a moment of silence.  “She’s the Ellen Rodney.”

“And we ought to be able to follow her somehow,” added Tom.

“We must!” cried Dick.  “Let us get to shore and see what we can do.”

“Don’t we get that dollar?” queried one of the boys who rowed the boat.

“Yes,” answered Dick, and handed the money over.  “Now get us to shore as quickly as possible.”

“If you want to catch that schooner, why don’t you go downtown after her?” asked the second boy of the rowboat.

“Just what I was thinking of doing,” answered Dick.  “I think we can get down there ahead of them.  The only question is, Can we get anybody down there to go out after the schooner?”

“You can get a boat at the Battery, if you’re willing to pay for it.  Plenty of tug captains down there looking for jobs.”

“Then we’ll get to the Battery as fast as possible,” said Tom.

The boys who had been rowing the boat were tired, so Tom and Dick took the oars, and thus the little craft was speedily brought back to the dock from which it had started.

“You can get an elevated train over there,” said one of the boys, pointing with his hand.  “It will take you right to the Battery.”

The Rover boys lost no time in leaving the dock and crossing the railroad tracks.  Then they fairly ran to the nearest station of the elevated railroad.  Dick purchased the tickets and dropped them in the box.  Then came a wait of several minutes on the platform.

“Train for South Ferry!” called out the guard, as a rumble was heard.

“Does that go to the Battery?” questioned Dick.

“Sure.”

The boys piled on board and away swept the line of cars, on the way downtown.  But it was a local train, making all the stops, so their progress was not as fast as they wished.

Here and there, through the cross streets, they caught sight of the glistening river, with its numerous craft.  Once Tom thought he saw the Ellen Rodney, but at that distance he could not he sure.

At last the train swept around a curve into the Battery, as the little park at the extreme lower point of the great metropolis is called.  Here were located several ferries and also some shipping offices, as well as the Aquarium.  Dick almost ran to the nearest shipping office.

“I want to stop a schooner that is coming down the Hudson River,” he said, to the clerk in charge.  “Can I hire a boat around here to take me out?”

“Anything wrong?” asked the clerk, curiously.

“Yes, very much wrong.”

“In that case, why don’t you put the harbor police on the job?”

“Can I get them handy?”

“Yes, the office is up there,” and the man pointed it out.