A MIDNIGHT VISITOR
The same dark canoe that Harriet Burrell had seen shoot out into the
lake before her the night she was reconnoitering near the camp of the
Tramp Club was now hovering about the houseboat. It would have appeared
almost uncanny to one not experienced in canoeing to observe the
absolute noiselessness with which the frail little craft was propelled
about the larger boat. When it was turned, it was as though the boat
were swinging on a pivot. When the half of its length was let down to
the water after such a swing, there followed not the slightest
suggestion of a splash.
Lulled by the gentle lapping of the water against the side of the boat,
the Meadow-Brook Girls slept soundly. On shore the boys of the Tramp
Club also were sleeping. The girls on board the "Red Rover," as already
mentioned, had no fear of a second attack that night, nor had the
youthful pirates the slightest intention of repeating the experiment
that had turned out so badly for them and so triumphantly for the
Meadow-Brook Girls. It was quite evident that the newcomer did not
belong to the Tramp Club. His face looked dark and swarthy in the
moonlight. He had straight black hair and high cheek bones and there was
a revengeful light in his sharp black eyes as he scanned the silent
houseboat.
Once more the canoe shifted its position and slid to a point directly
under one of the little windows. The window was open, the curtains were
streaming out through the opening. The intruder stood up in his canoe
without disturbing its balance in the least.
Just about this time Tommy Thompson awoke with a little gasp. She had
been dreaming that Buster, in the guise of a pirate, was trying to
smother her with a sofa pillow. Tommy had been skirting the edge of one
of the "pleathant nightmareth" she had prophesied for the girls on
retiring. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. Suddenly she uttered a
terrified scream.
For the second time that night the Meadow-Brook Girls scrambled from
their beds in alarm.
"Tommy, Tommy, what is the matter?" cried Harriet, springing to the
little girl's side.
"I thaw the motht terrible fathe," moaned Tommy. "Oh, thave me."
"Nonsense, Tommy," laughed Harriet.
"You've just had one of those nightmares you were talking about when you
bade us good night."
"No, thir," reiterated Tommy. "I thaw thomething. It wath a man and he
thtood right in front of the window. You thee I wath dreaming that
Buthter wath a pirate, and wath trying to thmother me with a thofa
pillow and all of a thudden I that up in bed and thaw thith fathe
looking in the window at me. That ith why I thcreamed," concluded Tommy,
with dignity. "I didn't have the nightmare. I tell you I thaw a fathe."
"How ridiculous," sniffed Buster. "How could she see a face when we are
away out here on the lake. Why look!" she continued, stepping to the
window. "It's bright moonlight, and there isn't a boat to be seen on the
water."
"Buthter doethn't know what I thaw," retorted Tommy angrily. "Thhe
hathn't my eyeth hath thhe? Buthter maketh me tired."
"There, there, girls," reproved Miss Elting. "That will do. Harriet, I
think you and I had better dress, then get into the rowboat and do a
little investigating. Perhaps some prowler has visited the boat while we
were asleep. Light the lamp, Jane, and we'll see if all our belongings
are safe."
Jane and Hazel made a rapid search about the boat while Harriet and
Miss Elting were dressing. Meanwhile Tommy and Margery sat on the edges
of their cots and conducted a spirited argument as to whether Tommy
really had seen a "fathe" at the window.
"All ready," called Harriet as she ran to where the rowboat was
fastened. Then she gave a little cry of alarm that brought Miss Elting
and the others to her side on the run.
"What is it, Harriet?" cried the guardian.
Harriet stood looking out over the water, a piece of rope in her hand.
"Some one has stolen our rowboat," she gasped. "See, the rope has been
cut."
"Then the Tramp Club must have come over here again in the night and
stolen it," decided Miss Elting. "Still that would hardly account for
the face Tommy saw at the window, and she is positive that she really
saw some one. I am inclined to think, however, that she had the
nightmare, and simply dreamed about that frightful face."
"I can't see that there is anything particularly clever or original
about stealing a rowboat in the dead of night," said Harriet slowly,
"and I don't believe that the boys would think so either. There is
something peculiar about this affair and I believe that the Tramp Club
have had nothing to do with this latest puzzle."
"That ith what I think," agreed Tommy. "It wathn't thothe boyth that
thcared me tho."
"Nothing has been stolen from the boat," declared Hazel, "so it looks as
though our midnight prowler vanished when he heard Tommy's first
scream."
"I'm going to mount guard for the rest of the night," announced Jane.
"It's half past two now, and by five o'clock it will be light. The rest
of you can go back to bed, and if any one else comes sneaking around
this boat, he'll have to come forward and state his business to Jane
McCarthy."