"How fast can you go?"

"Twenty-six to twenty-eight miles."

"Crowd it about all on, then. I don't want to have that other craft get too close to Mexico before we push up alongside."

"All speed, Joe, and do it quick!" Skipper Tom called down into the engine-room. Almost at once the "Restless" earned her name by fairly leaping forward through the water.

Then the chase began in earnest.

"Noll, pa.s.s the word below for a sergeant and six privates," directed Lieutenant Hal, in a low tone.

The enlisted men came up, taking their places on deck.

"Does the lieutenant want us to load our pieces?" called the sergeant quietly.

"Not yet," was Hal's reply, pa.s.sed back by Noll.

Then, on board the pursuing craft, all settled down to absolute quietness, save for the running of the machinery. The distance between the two boats was rapidly closing up, for it was plain that the other boat had started at full speed as soon as she sighted the pursuer.

Glare! A strong, broad beam of light, from the stranger's search-lamp, shone across the water, then picked up the "Restless" when the two boats were less than a quarter of a mile apart. The uniforms of Uncle Sam's blinking men must have stood out strongly before the vision of those on the stranger.

"You have a megaphone?" asked Lieutenant Hal.

"Yes," replied Skipper Tom, pa.s.sing the implement.

"Run up just as close as you can safely for a hail."

Lieutenant Hal waited until much more of the distance had been covered.

Then he raised the megaphone to his lips, shouting:

"Lay to, stranger! We are United States officers and must come aboard!"

"You can't!" bellowed a hoa.r.s.e, defiant voice.

"We _must_ and will! Lay to!"

"Take the consequences, then!" came the same hoa.r.s.e bellow.

Bang! It came altogether, in one sharp, crashing volley, from the stranger's decks, and a tempest of bullets. .h.i.t the "Restless."

"The pirates!" uttered Lieutenant Hal, at a white heat of indignation.

CHAPTER XIX

RASCALS AND MONEY TALK

Hal turned quickly, to see if any of his men had been hit.

"Not one hit, but it's a wonder," Noll informed his brother officer.

"The bullets of those fellows made a pin-cushion of the air all about us."

"Ready, men! Load, aim!" ordered Lieutenant Overton. Then he added, in a lower voice:

"If I give the word 'fire,' be sure you sweep that stranger's deck clean."

"Don't you dare fire on us," yelled the same hoa.r.s.e voice. "There are ladies aboard!"

"A likely yarn!" Hal jeered hotly.

"If you fire you'll find that there are. Now, sheer off!"

"You lay to," insisted Lieutenant Hal. "We're coming aboard."

"You only think you are!"

"Will you lay to?"

"No!"

"Run up alongside. We'll have to board 'em under way," Hal said, in a low voice. "Noll, head the men in the cabin. Order 'em to fix their bayonets. Don't bring them on deck until you find that we're boarding.

Then be brisk about it!"

As the "Restless" leaped in to lay alongside the stranger there could no longer be any doubt as to the grim intentions of the United States forces.

From the deck of the stranger came another sheet of flame. Hal felt one of the bullets tear through his left sleeve, though without cutting the flesh of his arm.

"Fire!" he gave the order.

When they shoot, regulars are taught to do it coolly and with effect.

Two or three yells from the stranger's deck greeted the volley, indicating that some had been hit.

But above all there rose a woman's piercing shriek.

"They really have a woman on board!" gasped Hal, feeling chill and sick for an instant.

"Yes, you infernal scoundrels!" came in the same hoa.r.s.e voice. "Oh, you'll pay for this outrage!"

"Fix bayonets!" Hal ordered, quietly, for now the two boats were close together, and Helmsman Hank was running the "Restless" right in for a boarding.

b.u.mp! The two boats came together.

"Prepare to board! Board!" shouted Hal, and was first to leap to the deck of the stranger, a craft some seventy feet in length and rather broad of beam.

His soldiers followed him. All the young officers went over the side, and Lieutenant Noll led the reserves from the cabin of the "Restless."