merous craft. Once Tom thought he saw the Ellen Rodney, but at that distance he could not be sure.
At last the train swept around a curve into the Battery, as the little park at the extreme lower point of the great metropolis is called. Here were located several ferries and also some shipping offices, as well as the Aquarium. Dick almost ran to the nearest shipping office.
"I want to stop a schooner that is coming down the Hudson River," he said, to the clerk in charge. "Can I hire a boat around here to take me out?"
"Anything wrong?" lasked the clerk, curiously.
"Yes, very much wrong."
"In that case, why don't you put the harbor police on the job?"
"Can I get them handy?"
"Yes, the office is up there," and the man pointed it out.
"Thanks," returned Dick, and headed for the place in question, with Tom and Sam at his heels.
An officer was in charge of the office of the harbor police and he listened with interest to what the boys had to tell.
"This is certainly a serious matter," he said,
