river to-night."

"May we go, too, sir?" begged Dick anxiously.

"Yes; if you get your parents' permission. We may be up the river late
to-night."

Mr. Holmes turned on his heel, going away at a walk that was close to a
run.

The five members of Dick & Co. scurried homeward. Every one of them
secured permission to go with Mr. Holmes, and to be out as late as
necessary. Dan Dalzell, the last of the five to get back to the
boathouse, was there for some minutes ere Mr. Holmes turned up with Mr.
Atwater.

The owner of the roomy launch speedily had things in running order. The
"Napoleon," with the reflector light going brightly, turned out of the
berth and headed up the river.

"My notion, Mr. Holmes," called the owner, sitting over the steering
gear, "is that we had better go rather slowly. If you'll turn that light
from side to side we ought to be able to scan the whole river as we
move."

Mr. Holmes was already busy swinging the light on its pivot. Behind,
peering ahead in all directions, crouched Dick Prescott and his chums.

They had gone about a mile upstream when Dick suddenly called out:

"Turn the light to the right again, Mr. Holmes, please. Yes; there it
is. Don't you make out a canoe over close by the shore?"

"Turn over there, Mr. Atwater," called Mr. Holmes, his hands shaking as
he tried to hold the light steadily on the floating object that Dick's
keen vision had picked up.

"Is--is that Jim Haynes's canoe?" asked Mr. Holmes in a choking voice,
as the launch swung in close to the drifting craft.

"Yes, sir," spoke Dick huskily. "See, there's an 'H' in a circle on the
bow."

Mr. Atwater ran up so close that the boys reached over and held the
canoe by its rim. There could be no doubt that it was Haynes's canoe.
All of the boys recognized it.

"There are no apples in the canoe," murmured Tom Reade.

"You glutton!" muttered Dan Dalzell angrily.

"No; I wasn't thinking of that," Tom retorted indignantly. "But there
being no apples shows that Greg didn't get as far as getting any. If
anything happened, then it happened before he had time to load the canoe
with apples."

"And that must have been hours ago," spoke Mr. Holmes with a noise in
his throat that was curiously like a sob.

Silently Dick and Dave fished for the bowline of the canoe, then went
back and made it fast astern.

"What now?" queried Mr. Atwater, looking at Greg's father.

"I think, perhaps, we had better go on up to Mr. P