the shingle as the little craft was launched. Swiftly, they fixed the oars in the locks and then they scrambled into their places.
They began to row with strong, steady strokes out toward the man in the bay. He had seen them, and was now shouting to them to hurry.
"He'd be better off if he kept quiet," Joe said. "He's only wasting his strength."
Evidently this thought occurred to the victim of the wreck, or else he was becoming weaker, for his cries died away and the boys did not hear him again.
Frank thought he may have gone beneath the waves, and he cast a quick look around. But the fellow was still in view, clinging desperately to his bit of wreckage.
The motorboat in the background was still blazing fiercely. Flames were shooting high in the air and the craft was plainly doomed. A great pillar of smoke was rolling into the sky from the burning boat.
As for the other motorboat, Frank could hear the roar of its exhaust as it continued its flight out into the bay. For a while he could see its dim shape, when he turned around once in a while, but then the fleeing boat disappeared into the mist and the gloom.
The boys exerted all their strength and the little rowboat fairly leaped over the waves.
