The Follow Me’s tender crept alongside amidst noisy greetings, Perry performing excruciatingly on the whistle until pulled away, and in another moment the visitors were aboard.  They were a nice-looking, upstanding lot, already well sunburned by a week afloat.  Wink Wheeler was the oldest of the six, for he was eighteen.  Harry Corwin, Bert Alley and Caspar Temple were seventeen and George Browne, or “Brownie,” as he was called, and Tom Corwin were sixteen.  First of all they had to see the boat and so the whole gathering trooped from one end to the other, exclaiming and admiring.

“The Follow Me’s a regular tub compared with this palace,” said Harry Corwin.  “Why, there isn’t anything finer than this along the South Shore, I guess!”

“Don’t you call our boat names,” protested “Brownie.”  “The Follow Me may not be as nifty as this, but she’s one fine little boat, just the same.  How long did it take you to come from New York, Joe?”

“Nearly four hours and a half, but we ran slow.  I guess we could have done it in three hours easily if we’d tried to.  This boat can do twenty at a pinch.  How fast is the Follow Me?”

“She’s done eighteen,” answered Harry Corwin, “but fourteen’s her average gait.  She burns up gas like the dickens when she does any more.  Yesterday we went to Freeport in fifty-seven minutes, and that’s a good seventeen and a half miles.  She had to hump herself, though.”

After the wonders of the Adventurer had been exhausted the boys gathered on the bridge deck and Steve laid a chart on the floor and they discussed their plans.  It had already been decided that they should cruise northward as far as Maine.  As there was no hurry in getting there, they were to take things easy, stopping at such points as promised interest and putting into harbour at night.  As it was already after four o’clock, they finally concluded to stay where they were until morning, although the Follow Me crowd were eager to be away.  “Our first harbour would be Ponquogue,” said Steve, “and that’s a good forty-six or-seven mile run.  Personally, I don’t care much about messing around outside after dark.  This is all new water to me.  If we start in the morning we’ll have plenty of time to run as far as Shelter Island, if we want to.”

This was agreed to, although Perry protested that as the charts showed a life-saving station every five miles or so all down the shore it was a shame not to take a chance.  “I’ve always wanted to be taken off a sinking ship in a breeches-buoy,” he said.

“Would you mind being wrecked in the daytime?” asked Neil.  “I’d love to see you in a breeches-buoy, Perry, and I couldn’t if it was dark.”

“Let’s all go up to the hotel for dinner,” suggested Wink Wheeler.  “They have dandy feeds there, and maybe we can scare up some fun.  Any of you fellows like to bowl?”

“First of all,” said Han, “we want to see your boat, fellows.  Let’s go over now.  I’m ready for hotel grub if the rest of you are.  Can we all go, Steve, or does someone have to stay behind and look after the boat?”