“Yes, you can go, and Conners can go with you,” answered Captain Putnam.
The boys were soon in the scow, and the farmer took them to the extreme end of the lake. Here they found all of the boats the school had used, drifted under some overhanging bushes.
“They are all tied together,” said Andy. “That looks as if they were taken away from the island on purpose.”
“You didn’t take them away, did you?” asked Bart Conners, of the farmer.
“Me? Not much. I was asleep last night,” was the answer. “I heard you shootin’ over to the island, but I didn’t git up.”
Andy leaped into one of the boats and picked up a cigarette butt and then another.
“I guess I know the crowd who did this,” said the acrobatic youth.
“Perhaps I do too,” said Bart, pointedly. “The same crowd that set the old boathouse on fire, eh?”
“Exactly.”
The cadets and the farmer took the boats back to the island. George Strong came down to inspect the craft and pay the farmer off.