little game we
are trying to put through?"

"I will," answered Pick Loring, promptly.

"So will I," added Hamp Gouch. "No game too daring for me either."

"Well, it's this way," continued Dan Baxter. "Supposing I told you
I had a game on that beats horse stealing all to bits. Would you go
in for half of what was in it?"

"Sure."

"Trust me," added Gouch. "Say," he went on. "Got any liquor aboard?
This rain is beastly."

"I guess there is some liquor. We'll hunt around and see."

"Ha!" exclaimed Pick Loring. "Say, perhaps you don't know much more
about this houseboat than we did about them horses we took."

"As you just said, I don't deny it."

"You and your pard are running off with the boat?" queried Hamp Gouch.

"Yes."

"Good enough. We claim a half-interest in the boat. Don't that go?"

"That's pretty cheeky," returned Lew Flapp.

"Let it go at that, Flapp," came from Baxter. "Yes, you can have a
half-interest. But that isn't our game."

"What is the game?"

"On board of this houseboat are two girls who are mighty anxious to
get back to their families and friends."

"Run off with 'em, did you?" cried Pick Loring, and now it must be
confessed that he was really astonished.

"We carried them off, yes. And we don't expect to let them get back
home unless we can make considerable money out of it," continued Dan
Baxter.

"Are they rich?"

"They are fairly well-to-do, and they have close personal friends
who, I feel sure, would pay a good price to see the girls get home
again unharmed."

"You're putty young to be runnin' a game like this," came from Hamp
Gouch.

"Maybe, but I know just what I am doing."

They walked into the living room, and Lew Flapp made an inspection
of the pantry and then of Captain Starr's private apartment. As it
happened, the captain used liquor, and several bottles were brought
out, much to the satisfaction of the horse thieves.

"This makes me feel more like talking," said Hamp Gouch, after
swallowing a goodly portion of the stuff.

"Perhaps you had better give us the whole game straight from start
to now," said Pick Loring. "Then we can make up our minds just what
we can do."

Sitting down, Dan Baxter told as much of himself and Lew Flapp as he
deemed necessary, and told about the trip on the houseboat which the
Rovers, Stanhopes, and the Lanings had been taking. Then he told how
Dora and Nellie had been abducted and how the voyage down the Ohio
had been start