her, I knows by the cut of her jib that
she's yer Lillian."

"My Lillian? Wher'd yer say yer seen her?" asked Sandy excitedly.

"Why, by the collard patch, not fifty yards from the Causeway. She
looked like she'd drifted on the marsh. I calc'lated when I got through
shootin' that I'd pick her up an' take her down to yer landin'. The
oars wuz in, an' I guess she must 'a' strayed from the shore, through
somebody fergettin' to tie her up."

"I'm much 'bliged, Buck," thanked Sandy, "but yer needn't bother. I'll
bring her down, an' the next galoot that takes her an' lets her git
away from him, is goin' to hear from me."

Sandy retraced the course he had come, and after turning on the other
side of the bridge, had no trouble in finding his boat. She was lying
on a sand-bar, but he soon succeeded in floating her and bringing her
ashore.

Safely securing the skiff and the boat, he began another search along
the beach, and almost immediately was rewarded by finding a knot of
blue ribbon, such as he had often seen Lillian wear in her hair.
Farther along, he discovered tracks in the sand. These he followed,
Indian fashion, up the embankment, lost trace of them for a moment on
the hardened surface of the carriage way, but speedily picked them up
again in the soft soil that ran downward on the other side.

Then, it was easy to pursue them along a pathway that led to a graveled
beach where a dozen or more skiffs had been drawn up and tied to stakes
for the winter. From here on, all further traces were obliterated.

Thoroughly familiar with all the river craft belonging there, even to
the individual ownership, Sandy noticed at once that one of the boats
was missing, and that its painter had only recently been cut.

"Why, it's Willie Bagner's boat they've got," he said to himself as he
recognized which boat was missing, "an' I'll bet my life the scalawags
are hidin' somewhere up the river."

Hurrying back, he rowed to the landing and started in haste for his
home, with a plan of rescue fully developed in his mind. He sought out
Leander, Dink and Gilbert, and asked them to call at his house without
delay.

While Sandy's investigation had convinced him that Lillian was stolen,
Colonel Franklin had been made to realize the same terrible fact in
another and more brutal way. When he reached his office on the same
afternoon, he found on his desk a letter that read as follows:

dere sur--if U meen bizness i can put U on to wha