"How the dickens are they steering her, Harry ?" he demanded, staring in puzzlement at the empty cockpit of the other craft.
"There's an auxiliary wheel forward, in the stateroom.

They're coming around, fellows.

Get under cover! Steve, you'd better drop!" The others scuttled for the companion ways, and none too soon, for, as the _Follow Me_ swung around into the channel those behind her ports had a clean sweep of the _Adventurer's_ bridge deck and a fusillade of shots swept across the forty or fifty yards dividing the boats.

Steve and Wink had dropped below the rail, while, in the cabins, the others were taking good care to crouch beneath the level of the ports.

Some eight shots were fired, but, although several took effect on various parts of the bridge, the fact that the _Adventurer_ was now plunging around in a half-circle at a full twelve miles an hour and the other boat was running at top speed down the channel made accuracy impossible.