ose, in derision.

"Maybe you'd like to have a taste of this?" put in Tom, holding up
the gun.

"Don't you dare to shoot!" yelled the man, and lost no time in sliding
from his seat and out of sight.

At that moment those on the houseboat felt a slight shock, and then
the craft's headway was checked.

"What's up now?" cried Dick.

"We're aground, that's what's the matter," muttered Captain Starr.
"Those rascals ought to suffer for this!"

In a moment more the big raft had passed the houseboat. The latter
now began to swing around with the current.

"I hope we are not stuck in the mud for good," grumbled Fred Garrison.

"Look! look!" burst from Sam's lips. He was pointing to the raft.

"What's up now?" came from several of the others.

"Unless I am mistaken, Dan Baxter is on that raft."

"Baxter!" exclaimed Tom.

"Yes."

"Where?"

"He was sitting on that pile of boards in the rear. As soon as he
saw me, he slid out of sight."

"Are you sure it was Baxter?" questioned Songbird Powell.

"If it wasn't him, it was his double."

"If it was Baxter, we ought to try to catch him," suggested Fred.

"I don't see how we are going to catch anybody just now," sighed
Dick. "We are stuck hard and fast."

"Oh, Dick, are we really aground?" questioned Dora.

"We are that," said Captain Starr.

"Is there any danger?" asked Nellie Laning, who had joined the others,
accompanied by her sister Grace.

"No immediate danger, miss. It depends on whether we can get off or not."

"We'll have to get off," said Tom decidedly.

"Rub a dub dub!
We're stuck in the mud
As hard as hard can be!
Shall we ever,
Or shall we never,
Set the houseboat free?" came softly from Songbird Powell.

"Great Caesar, that's a fine thing to make a rhyme about," returned
Sam reproachfully.

"Let's make Songbird wade out in the mud and shove us off," suggested
Tom, with a wink at his companions.

"Wade out in the mud?" cried the youth who was given to rhymes. "Not
much!"

"Mud bath is the finest thing in the world, Songbird," went on Tom.
"Bound to cure hay fever, warts, squint-eye and lots of things."

"Then you go take it yourself," murmured Songbird.

"We'll have to get out the rowboat and see if we can't pull her off,"
said Captain Starr.

"Yes, and the sooner the better," said Dick. "If we wait, we may get
harder aground than ever."

It did not take long to let the rowboat over the side of the _Dora_,
as the hou