"Didn't think of it at all," chuckled Jack, "Just did it without thinking."
"Well," spoke up May, "it saved us and it was a mighty brave thing to do."
"Now, turn off the soft soap spigot," ordered Jack, and they all laughed.
They soon reached the wharf, and, running up to the house, told Mr. Golden what had happened.
"This is serious, indeed," he declared, taking up the phone. He soon had the manager of the hotel on the wire, telling him of the hold-up. The manager, in turn, said that two men, calling themselves King and Reed had been stopping there for about a week and had started off for a row about eight o'clock that evening. He promised to have them arrested at once if they returned, but doubted very much if they would show up again. He suggested that Mr. Golden call up the police of Skowhegan and Madison and ask them to be on the lookout for them. This he did, describing the two men as well as he could from the boys' description, and the police promised to be on the watch. But although the country round about was well searched, no clue to them was found, but the rowboat was picked up the next morning near the foot of the lake.
CHAPTER VII.
BOB DISAPPEARS.
"It's your turn to get a pail of water, Bob."
"All right, just let me finish this chapter."
It was a couple of days after the events related in the last chapter. All the family were on the porch except Bob, who was inside reading. The drinking water, used by the Goldens, was brought from a spring, about fifty rods back of the house in the woods. The house was supplied with water from a deep well, but all liked the spring water much better for drinking, so the boys took turns going after it.
Bob noticed that it was nearly ten o'clock when he closed his book, took his electric torch and getting a pail from the kitchen, started for the spring. The night was pitch dark, as it was cloudy and there was no moon, but the torch lit up the path in front of him so that he had no trouble in following it. As he reached the spring, he thought he heard a slight rustling in the bushes, but beyond thinking, "Guess that's a rabbit," he paid no attention to it. He was bending over the spring to fill his pail, when suddenly he was grabbed from behind, jerked over backwards and, before he could cry out, a hand was placed over his mouth and he felt himself held to the ground by two men.