"All right, say somebody took it," Fred gave in. "What would they do with it?"
"Use it," said Artie. "It was a good raft."
"Maybe," Ward offered in his slow way, "Joe Anderson took it, just to be mean."
"Now you're talking!" exclaimed Fred. "That would be a Joe Anderson trick, all right. But he's going home this afternoon."
"He could hide it," Ward suggested.
"Well, I didn't think he'd take it on the train with him," grinned Fred. "Now it's up to us to do a little detective work."
This sounded exciting, and Artie and Ward waited expectantly for Fred to tell them what to do.
"Are there any footprints?" Fred demanded. "Look around and see if you see any footprints on the sand."
The boys reported that, as far as they could tell, the only marks were those made by their own feet.
"That proves," announced Fred triumphantly, "that Joe came in a boat and towed the raft away—just what I thought!"