"Yes, sir," assented Halstead, rising. "Any further orders, sir?"
Tom Halstead left the owner's suite and walked forward, filled with a wonderful sense of elation. He passed the pilot house just in time to see Joe Dawson coming up forward.
"Say, are we going to wake up, chum?" breathed young Dawson in his friend's ear.
"I don't believe we'll have to," laughed the young skipper, happily. "We're all right, I'm pretty sure, if we don't do something that greatly displeases the boat's owner. Thanks to Mr. Delavan, the owner of this craft is willing to believe, at the start, that we're all that's good and wonderful. But come into my cabin, old fellow, if you have the time. We'll dine together to-night."
Both motor boat boys sighed their supreme contentment as they dropped into arm-chairs facing each other. It was now so dark that Tom switched on the electric lights.
"How are the engines, Joe?" asked Tom, dropping into his old, friendly manner.
"Ready to start at a second's notice. And Jed's on duty there, waiting for the word."
"Tanks bulging with it. Tom, this is a beautifully appointed boat below, and every store of every description is in place."
"That's the kind of a man I'm pretty sure Mr. Baldwin is," nodded Halstead.
Joe surveyed a row of speaking tubes that hung against the forward wall of the captain's room. He picked out one labeled "engine-room," pressing the button beneath it.
"Hello, sir," came the quick response, in Jed Prentiss's unmistakable tones.
"Hello, Mr. Prentiss," Joe returned. "How do you like it down there, on duty?"
"It's perfect!" responded Jed, almost dreamily. "Everything here but my own personal steward. I ain't sure but what _he'll_ blow in, in a minute, and ask me what I'll have for dinner."
"Tell him we're scheduled to start at seven," suggested Halstead.
"I can start in seven seconds, if I'm asked to," promised Prentiss. "Anyway, I can have the propellers turning fast before you can get the anchor up. Crackey! I forgot that I have to supply even the power for hoisting anchor."
Twenty minutes later the two chums, who had begun their career by patching up an old steam launch down at the mouth of the Kennebec River, in Maine, were seated at table in the captain's cabin, doing justice to a meal that was but little short of sumptuous.