The girls rowed quickly home, but ere they had reached the entrance to the secret creek they were startled by the sound of a shrill scream. They recognized the voice as Tommy's and began to shout, and to row with all their might. A moment later, just as they were about to turn into the opening with their boat, a canoe shot out and darted across their bows, disappearing in the darkness.
"A man, a man!" yelled Tommy as Harriet shouted to know if the two girls were all right. Tommy threw open the door and in her excitement walked off the after deck of the "Red Rover" and fell forward into the stream.
"Jane, do you recognize that man?" cried Harriet excitedly.
"Yes," exclaimed Jane, "he's the man I saw this afternoon, and he's our mysterious enemy too, or my name's not Jane McCarthy."
CHAPTER XXIII
ON A STORMY CRUISE
It was late on the following forenoon when the Meadow-Brook Girls might have been observed towing the "Red Rover" out from the creek in which it had been anchored. They decided that it was high time to leave.
During their absence, and while they were frightening the Tramp Club with sheets draped over sticks and carried high above their heads, Tommy and Margery had been having an exciting experience. They had been anxiously peering out of the cabin, when after an hour or so they discovered a canoe approaching the scow. At first they thought it one of their own party who was paddling the canoe. They soon discovered that it was a man. The girls were too frightened to do more than watch him in almost breathless silence. But when the man climbed aboard the after deck, after satisfying himself that the boat was deserted, they decided that it was time to move.