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The Secret of the Caves

gan eating up the intervening distance. Rocking and swaying, prow well out of the water, the boat overhauled the Napoli and Frank grinned at Tony as they crept by. The Italian lad was getting every ounce of speed of which his engine was capable and although he jockeyed to try to put the Hardy boys off the course, they sped on and soon left him behind.

Biff had been tinkering with the engine of his craft and had evidently made a few improvements, for the Envoy was going along at a clip it had never before achieved.

"Looks as if he intends to put one over on us," muttered Frank, as he opened up the engine to the last notch. "He'll beat us to the boat at this rate."

The motor yacht was about a mile away.

On through the water plunged the Sleuth, gaining slowly but surely on the craft ahead.

Once in a while Biff cast a hasty glance backward to wave mockingly at them. He misjudged an approaching wave on one of these occasions and the Envoy swerved; he lost valuable seconds righting the craft into its course again and the Sleuth gained.

The yacht was about a quarter of a mile distant when the Sleuth at last pulled up beside the other boat. Inch by inch it forged ahead until the bow of each boat was on a line with the other. Then the Sleuth's greater speed

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