"I tell you, Sam is right," said George positively. "Those fellows on that Varmint II are a hard crowd. If they have been betting as much money as Sam says they have, it may be that there's some reason for his being afraid that some accident may happen to the Black Growler."
"It wouldn't do any harm to keep pretty close watch anyway," suggested Grant. "Whatever the weather is I think it will be better to run her into the boat-house every night and put double locks on the doors."
"We'll do more than that," said Sam. "We'll have somebody on the lookout. I guess it wouldn't be very much of a job for you boys to divide the night up into watches. I'll stay on duty until eleven or twelve o'clock and from then on until six wouldn't take more than an hour and a half from each of you."
"We'll do that," said Fred quickly. "That's a good suggestion, Sam."
"But if we have the Black Growler fast inside the boat-house how can any one get at her?" inquired John.
"My dear String," said Grant solemnly, "I fear now that the remark of that wise Englishman was correct when he said that Nature never built men seven stories high without the top lofts being left empty."
"I have heard you say that before," retorted John, irritated by the manner more than by the words of his friend.
"Well, all I can say is," said Grant, "if you have any gray matter up there where your brain ought to be located you had better begin pretty soon to make it work. If a man wanted to break into the boat-house he wouldn't have very much trouble in doing it, no matter how many padlocks we put on the doors."
"That's right," spoke up George. "He could dive under the doors, or smash in the window or cut out a glass and if there wasn't any one on guard he might never be detected. No, sir, we've got to establish a guard and the fellow who is on duty must keep up a regular patrol. He must keep walking around the dock all the time."
"And there may be some other ways by which they will try to get at us besides injuring our boat," suggested Grant.