“Hullo, there!” came suddenly out of the darkness.  “What’s up back there?”

“Who are you calling to, Hamp?” came from the galley.

“Something doing back here,” answered Hamp Gouch.  “Somebody just cut loose from our stern.”

“What’s that?” burst out Dan Baxter, and tumbled out on deck, followed by the others.

“I said somebody just cut loose from this houseboat.  There they go,” and the horse thief pointed with his hand.

“It can’t be the girls!” cried Flapp.

“Run to the stateroom and see,” answered Baxter.  “I’ll get the big lantern.”

Lew Flapp hurried to the door of the state-room, taking with him the key Baxter handed over.

“Hullo, in there!” he shouted.  “Are you awake?”

Receiving no answer he knocked loudly on the door.

“I say, why don’t you answer?” he went on.  “I’m coming in.”

Still receiving no reply, he started to put the key in the lock and found that he could not do so.

“It won’t do any good to block the lock,” he called out.  “Answer me, or I’ll break down the door.”

Still nothing but silence, and in perplexity he ran back to Baxter.

“I can’t get a sound out of them, and the keyhole is stuffed,” he said.

“We’ll break in the door,” said the leader of the evil-doers.

It took but a minute to execute this threat, for the door was thin and frail.  Both gave a hasty look around.

“Gone!”

“They must have taken the rowboat and rowed away,” said Lew Flapp.

Both went back to where they had left Pick Loring and Hamp Gouch.

“The girls are gone,” said Baxter.  “They must have skipped in that rowboat.”

“We can soon fix ’em,” muttered Loring.  “We’ll get Sculley to go after them.”

The launch ahead was signaled and soon came up alongside.

“What’s wanted now?”

“Take me aboard and I’ll tell you,” answered Baxter, and he and Pick Loring boarded the launch.

In the meantime the two girls had placed the oars into the rowlocks and were rowing off as fast as their strength would permit.

“Oh, Dora, do you think we can get away!” gasped Nellie.

“We must!  Do your best, and keep time with me.”

“But which way are we going?”

“I don’t know, yet.  The best we can do is to keep away from the lights of the houseboat.”

Stroke after stroke was taken in dire desperation, and after a while they had the satisfaction of seeing the lights of the houseboat fading away in the distance.

All was gloom and mist around them and they stopped rowing, not knowing in which direction to turn next.

“We are lost on the river,” said Nellie.

“Yes, but that is better than being in the hands of our enemies,” was Dora’s answer.

“Yes, Dora, ten times over.  But what shall we do next?”