A FRUITLESS SEARCH
"Don't be an idiot, Larry," rebuked If Billy Gordon. "Don't you know
what that was?"
"Yes. I told you," whispered the red-headed boy.
"Pshaw! It was only a cat bird," scoffed George Baker. "Who's afraid of
spooks, anyway? The fact is that those girls have outwitted us three
times. We have lost the wager. Now the question is, when did they get
away?"
Larry declared that he had never removed his gaze from the anchor light
during his whole watch, except when he went to get wood for the
campfire.
"There's only one way out of it," decided Billy. "Duck the two of them.
We will be certain to get the right party then."
"'Nuff said," nodded George. The boys grabbed the two lads, and, despite
their struggles, managed to throw them into the lake, but in doing so,
George and Billy found themselves in the water, also.
This little experience put them in a better frame of mind. The lads
quickly divested themselves of their wet pajamas and put on their
clothes. Breakfast was a hurried meal that morning. After breakfast they
sat down to take counsel among themselves while Sam scraped the dishes
then threw them in the lake to be washed by the lake itself. They
decided that either Larry or Sam must have fallen asleep, and that at a
time when the girls had moved from their anchorage.
Both lads protested that nothing of the kind had happened. Sam stuck to
his story that the anchor light had faded away and that the "Red Rover"
had disappeared all in the same moment.
"What are we going to do about it?" questioned Larry Goheen.
"We are going to take up a collection for that camera, and then we are
going to find them," answered Billy.
"We are going to try, you mean," answered George with a mirthless smile.
"We have tried before--and failed, and now we are obliged to confess
that we are beaten for good and all. However let us reason this thing
out. The 'Red Rover' couldn't have disappeared, it could have gone only
by being towed away. If a launch had towed it, the noise would have
awakened us, even though Larry or Sam had been asleep. If the houseboat
was towed by the girls, which it undoubtedly was, it can't be far away.
That makes our work easier."
"There is only one flaw in your argument, George," interrupted Billy
Gordon. "Granting that they did row away from here, how do you know that
at daylight they did not pick up a launch and hike half the length of
the lake?"
George shook his head slowly.
"There wouldn't be any fun for them in that. They would want to be on
hand, to make faces at us behind our backs."
"You may be right at that." Billy gazed reflectively over the lake. As
he gazed his eyes took on an expression of new interest. "What's that
out there, fellows?" he demanded.
It was some seconds before they discovered that which had attracted his
attention. Then when they did so, they were unable to decide what it
was. They were certain that the object had not been there the night
before.
"That's right where the 'Red Rover' lay," cried Larry Goheen. "Maybe
they have sunk."
The boys with one accord ran for the rowboat. They shoved it off, leaped
in and began rowing at top speed toward the object that had attracted
their attention. Larry began to grin long before they reached the spot.
They finally pulled up alongside the object and stopped.
The boys regarded it solemnly, then looked into each other's eyes. There
followed a shout of laughter.
The object that had been discovered by them was a stick, which had been
thrust down into the soft bottom in shallow water. A lantern had been
tied to the top of the stick. It was this lantern, at the end of a
stick, that Larry Goheen had been watching all night, believing it to be
the anchor light of the "Red Rover." It was plain that the girls had
known that they were to be watched, and that they had taken the easiest
possible way to outwit their friends, by placing the anchor light on a
stick and leaving it at the anchorage while the "Red Rover" slipped away
unobserved under cover of the darkness.
"Stung!" groaned Sam.
"Worse than that," answered George. "There aren't any words in the
language to express what we'd like to say. Wait till I get the lantern."
The lantern was still burning and the chimney was considerably smoked.
George took it aboard and blew out the light. "You didn't see it go out
after all, Sam."
"I--I thought I did."
"I wonder when they left?" mused Billy.
"Larry, what have you to say about that?" demanded George Baker.
"Absolutely nothing."
"They went away during your watch."
"You can't blame him," answered Sam. "Anybody would have been fooled
under the circumstances."
"Don't try to make lame excuses," jeered Billy. "Be a man and own up.
They outwitted you, and that's all there is about it. Now, what are we
going to do?"
"Get out the launch and go on a hunt for them," declared George. "Any
one got a better plan?"
No one had. They had no plans at all, but were too dazed by this last
trick that had been played on them to be able to think at all clearly.
They reached the shore and George stepped out. His foot had no more than
touched the ground before that same wailing cry rang in their ears
again.
"I tell you it's a banshee," cried Larry, his shock of red hair fairly
standing on end.
"We will attend to the ghosts after we have found the 'Red Rover',"
answered George. His face had paled slightly at the sound, and he
admitted to himself that he felt creepy. He was glad that they were
going away from their camp for a time. It was evident that whatever the
noise might be, it was intended to express disapproval of their presence
on the island. George remembered what Harriet Burrell had said about
ghosts on the previous evening. He had laughed at it at the time. He did
not laugh now. He was thinking and thinking seriously.
No further cries were heard that morning. The boys put out their
campfire and set the camp to rights, Billy in the meantime being engaged
in cleaning and oiling his motor preparatory to the morning run around
the island and along the shore of the mainland.
It was not exactly a joyous party that set out in the launch half an
hour later. They were chagrined at losing the contest and disgusted that
they should have fallen such easy victims to the ingenious schemes of
the girls.
"Do you know, I have been thinking," spoke up Larry after they had
started.
"That's something new," jeered Sam.
"I have been wondering if all the strange things that have occurred to
the girls haven't been part of a plan to keep us stirred up."
"Larry, I'm ashamed of you," exclaimed George indignantly. "Those girls
may be full of mischief, but they don't tell lies. They told us the
truth, about their mysterious enemy, and I don't want to hear any boy
intimate that they haven't. He and I will have a falling out right on
the spot, if he does."
"I apologize. I--I guess I didn't mean it that way," stammered Larry.
"They are too clever for us, that's all there is to it," added George.
"Run into that cove, please, Billy. There is something that looks like a
red boat in there."
The something proved to be a small boathouse painted red. It did
resemble the "Red Rover" somewhat. They headed out of the cove, saying
little, but keeping up a lively thinking. The launch was run up the
shore of the mainland for several miles.
"Shall I turn back?" asked Billy.
"You might as well," nodded George. "I would suggest that we circle the
island once more. Shut down as low as you can. We must keep a sharp
lookout. There may be some way of getting a boat out of sight. I am
positive that they are about here somewhere."
The encircling of the island was attended with no better results. Not a
trace of either Meadow-Brook Girls or "Red Rover" was discovered.
Disgusted and disappointed the boys headed the launch toward home.
"I'll tell you what we will do," declared George as they were landing.
"We will spread out and search the island. I can't get the idea out of
my mind that they are not far away."
"But what would they do with their boat? It isn't anywhere in the lake
about here, and surely they couldn't drag it ashore," objected Billy.
"I don't know. I am beginning to think those girls can do almost
anything they set out to do. They are a clever lot. I never knew them to
start anything yet that they didn't go through with, usually ending up
by giving us the worst of it."
Sam hopped ashore first and ran up to the tent. He peered in, then
uttered a yell.
"Somebody's been here," he cried. "Wow!"
The boys hurried up to the tent. The interior was in confusion. The
contents of the tent had been piled in a great heap in the middle of the
floor. A suit of khaki had been draped over sticks and leaned against
the side of the tent, looking like a live man at first glance. Outside
an oven had been constructed of rocks, and a fire put under it. On a
flat stone the coffee pot stood ready. The table had been set, the
potatoes pared and sliced ready for frying, in fact everything was ready
for the noon meal with the exception of the cooking.
The boys looked at each other then burst out laughing.
"We've had company," grinned George.
"I wish they would come every day," added Larry. "They have sense
whoever they are, even if they turn our tent topsy-turvy. But wait.
We've got those girls now. We know they are somewhere about, and we'll
find them if it takes all day and all night to do it."