"Are you certain of this, Tom?" asked Dick.
"Yes, I saw them as plain as day. They were looking at the houseboat."
"Did they see you?"
"I think they did, and if so they must have seen the rest of our crowd too."
"We ought to go after them," came from Fred. "The name of that steamboat was the Beaver."
"Wonder where she will make her first stop?"
For an answer to this question Captain Starr was appealed to, and he said the craft would most likely stop first at a town which we will call Penwick.
"How far is that from here?" asked Sam.
"About six miles."
"Can we get a train to that place?"