



Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
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The Motor Boat Club at the Golden Gate

OR

A Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog

By

H. IRVING HANCOCK

Author of The Motor Boat Club of the Kennebec, The Motor Boat Club at
Nantucket, The Motor Boat Club off Long Island, The Motor Boat Club and
the Wireless, The Motor Boat Club in Florida, etc., etc.

Illustrated

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY


COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY HOWARD E. ALTEMUS


[Illustration: "I Trust You, But I'll Hold Onto the Pitcher."

_Frontispiece._]




CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                           PAGE
    I. TOM HALSTEAD, KNIGHT OF THE OVERLAND MAIL,    7

   II. HAZING, M. B. C. K. STYLE,                   22

  III. CAPTAIN TOM'S NEW COMMAND,                   34

   IV. HALSTEAD IS LET INTO A SECRET,               52

    V. A HUNT IN THE UNDER-WORLD,                   59

   VI. FACING THE YELLOW BARRIER,                   68

  VII. DICK TAKES THE RESCUE BOAT TRICK,            81

 VIII. THE REAL KENNEBEC WAY,                       94

   IX. THE CHASE OF THEIR LIVES,                   100

    X. COMING TO CLOSE, DANGEROUS QUARTERS,        111

   XI. GASTON GIDDINGS MAKES TROUBLE,              122

  XII. TOO-WHOO-OO! IS THE WORD,                   129

 XIII. THE CALL FROM OUT OF THE FOG,               136

  XIV. MR. CRAGTHORPE IS MORE THAN TROUBLESOME,    146

   XV. THE MIDNIGHT ALARM,                         155

  XVI. THE FIRE DRILL IN EARNEST,                  164

 XVII. CRAGTHORPE INTRODUCES HIS REAL SELF,        172

XVIII. A TRICK MADE FOR TWO,                       183

  XIX. TED DYER, SAILOR BY MARRIAGE,               196

   XX. THE FIND IN THE FOREHOLD,                   206

  XXI. ON A BLIND TRAIL OF THE SEA,                213

 XXII. A STERN LOOMS UP IN THE FOG,                222

XXIII. ROLLINGS'S LAST RUSE,                       228

 XXIV. CONCLUSION,                                 243




The Motor Boat Club at The Golden Gate




CHAPTER I

TOM HALSTEAD, KNIGHT OF THE OVERLAND MAIL


"I feel it in my bones," announced Joe Dawson, quietly though
positively.

"That's no talk for an engineer," jibed Tom Halstead. "Tell me, instead,
that you read it in your gauge."

"Oh, laugh, if you want to," nodded Dawson, showing no offense. "But
you'll find that I'm right. You know, I don't often make predictions."

"Yet, this time, you feel that something disastrous is going to happen
before this train rolls out on the mole at Oakland? In other words,
before we set foot in San Francisco?"

"No, I don't say quite that," objected Joe, thoughtfully. "There's a
heap of the navigator about you, Tom Halstead, and you're pinning me
down to the map and the chronometer. I won't predict quite as closely as
that. But, either before we reach 'Frisco, or mighty soon after we get
there, something is going to happen."

"And it's going to be a disaster?" questioned Tom, closely.

"For someone, yes; and we're going to be in it, at great risk."

"Well, it's a comfort to have it narrowed down even as closely as that,"
smiled Tom Halstead. "I hope it isn't going to be another earthquake,
though."

"No," agreed Joe, thoughtfully.

"Oh, well, that much of your prediction will comfort the people of San
Francisco, anyway."

"Now, you're laughing at me again," grinned Joe, good-naturedly.

"No; I'm not," protested Halstead, but belied himself by the twinkle in
his eyes, and by whistling softly the air of a popular song that the
boys had heard in a New York theatre just before leaving for the West.

At the present moment both boys were sitting comfortably facing each
other in their section in a sleeping car on the luxurious Overland Mail.
It was early forenoon. They had left Sacramento behind some time before,
on the last stretch of the run across the state of California.

Joe Dawson was riding facing forward. Tom Halstead, in the seat
opposite, half lolled at the window-ledge, with his back toward the
engine. Both boys had slept well on their