"What is it, Harriet?" cried the guardian.
Harriet stood looking out over the water, a piece of rope in her hand. "Some one has stolen our rowboat," she gasped. "See, the rope has been cut."
"Then the Tramp Club must have come over here again in the night and stolen it," decided Miss Elting. "Still that would hardly account for the face Tommy saw at the window, and she is positive that she really saw some one. I am inclined to think, however, that she had the nightmare, and simply dreamed about that frightful face."
"I can't see that there is anything particularly clever or original about stealing a rowboat in the dead of night," said Harriet slowly, "and I don't believe that the boys would think so either. There is something peculiar about this affair and I believe that the Tramp Club have had nothing to do with this latest puzzle."
"That ith what I think," agreed Tommy. "It wathn't thothe boyth that thcared me tho."
"Nothing has been stolen from the boat," declared Hazel, "so it looks as though our midnight prowler vanished when he heard Tommy's first scream."
"I'm going to mount guard for the rest of the night," announced Jane. "It's half past two now, and by five o'clock it will be light. The rest of you can go back to bed, and if any one else comes sneaking around this boat, he'll have to come forward and state his business to Jane McCarthy."