"What's the matter?" asked Paul Livingstone.
"Hullo, Mr. Livingstone, is that you?" called out one of the officers of the law on the launch.
"It is, Captain Dixon. What's the trouble?"
"We are looking for those two horse thieves, Pick Loring and Hamp
Gouch. I suppose you know they escaped."
"So I heard. Well, I hope you get them," answered the owner of the stock farm. "They took four of my horses once."
"So I understand. What are you doing out here this time of night?"
"We are looking for a houseboat that was stolen. Seen anything of such a craft?"
"Certainly we did."
"You did!" burst from Dick and several of the others. "Where?"
"Down the river four or five miles. The fellows on board told us that they had seen a sailboat with two men in it beating up the river, and from the description we took the men to be Loring and Gouch."