rner, with a faint smile.

They sat down and talked the matter over for quarter of an hour, Fred
and Songbird in the meantime bathing their wrists and having them
bound up with handkerchiefs. Not only was the launch gone, but their
food also.

"I saw a few things left on the _Dora_," said Dick; "canned stuff
and like that, which they forgot to take or ruin. That will give us
something to eat."

"We might find a trail out of the swamp to some plantation," suggested
Harold Bird, "but that would take time, and I think we ought to be
following the launch."

"How?" asked Fred.

"Ve can't schwim," put in Hans.

"Go back for the houseboat and follow them in that. It will be slow,
but it will likewise be sure."

"We'll do it," answered Dick.

This time all set out for the houseboat. They followed the first
trail that had been taken and, remembering the bad spots, covered
the distance without serious mishap. By this time all were hungry,
and while Hans and Fred set to work to make a fire in the cook stove
and prepare the best meal possible under the circumstances, the others
turned the houseboat down the inlet and out into the small lake. It
was hard work poling the big craft along, but once in the little lake
they were delighted to find that the current was fairly strong towards
the big lake and the Mississippi. They used both poles and sweeps
and worked like Trojans.

"Dinner is ready!" called Fred at last, and one after another took
a seat and ate the canned corn, tomatoes, and salmon which had been
made ready. They also had a few crackers and a pot of rather weak
coffee, but they were sincerely thankful that matters were not worse.

"The worst of it is, we are not the only sufferers," said Dick to
Harold Bird. "The ladies and the girls who have been traveling with
us have lost all their valuables--that is, such things as happened
to be left on the _Dora_. Just what is missing they will have to tell
us."

"Well, as I said before, I shall do all in my power to bring them to
justice. I should think you'd be more than anxious to have this Dan
Baxter locked up."

"Yes."

"You say he has been your enemy for years?"

"Yes. When my brothers and I started to go to a boarding school called
Putnam Hall, in New York State, we ran across this Baxter. He was
annoying Miss Stanhope and her two cousins, Grace and Nellie. We had
a row then and there, and ever since that time he has been our bitter
enemy and has tried, in