convinced Snap that the rowboat with its
valuable contents was nowhere in that vicinity, and then he ran
back to the tent much disturbed.

"Get up, you fellows!" he called. "Get up! The boat is gone!"

At first nobody paid attention, for even Shep was asleep once
more. But then Giant roused up, quickly followed by his chums.

"What's the matter?"

"The boat and our outfit is gone!"

"Gone!"

"Why---er---I dreamed it!" stammered the doctor's son. "Am I
awake or asleep?"

"You're awake," answered Snap, and then he continued hurriedly:
"Shep, do you think you heard somebody take the boat while you
were in a doze and so imagined you dreamed it?"

"I---er---I don't know. No, I don't think I did---my dream was so
unnatural. Come to think of it, the boat had wings and flew away.
Now, that couldn't happen."

"Not unless some wizard turned the craft into an airship," answered
Whopper.

All were soon at the water's edge and looking in all directions
for the missing rowboat. What had been left of the outfit had
been stored in the stern and tied down with a rubber cloth, to
keep off the heavy dew. They stirred up the campfire still more,
and each provided himself with a firebrand as a torch.

"This is the worst luck yet," observed the doctor's son, with
something like a groan. "Supposing we can't get our boat and
outfit back---"

"Oh, we've got to get 'em back!" burst out Whopper. "We'll do it if
we have to scrape the lake with a fine-tooth comb."

"I wish it was morning---we can't see much in the dark, even with
the torches," said Shep.

Giant was examining the shore, for the possible discovery of strange
footprints. But he could discover none that looked different
from their own.

"If I was an Indian I might distinguish them, but to me they all
look alike," he said.

What to do next the young hunters did not know. Had they had
a second boat they might have rowed up and down the lake, but
even this move was denied to them.

"Let us go up and down the shore on foot," suggested Snap. "It
is all out of the question to go back to bed---I couldn't sleep
a wink."

It was decided that Shep and Snap should go north while Whopper and
Giant went south. All procured new torches, and each took along
a gun.

"If you discover anything give the old whistle," said the leader of
the club.

The way Snap and Shep had chosen was anything but easy. To the
northward the shore of Lake Cameron was rocky and u