her.

As she came back to camp she thought she caught a faint and distant
sound.

"Like an oarlock creaking," she told herself, "yet who would be out
there at this time of night?"

She retraced her steps to the beach to scan the sea that glistened in
the moonlight. Not hearing or seeing anything, she concluded that she
had been mistaken.

Back at the camp once more, she glanced at the motionless figure seated
by the bed of darkening coals. Then, creeping inside the tent, she
drew a blanket over her shoulders and sat down, lost at once in deep
thought.

As time passed her thoughts turned into dreams and she slept. How long
she slept she could not tell. She awoke at last with a start; she felt
greatly disturbed. Had she heard a muffled shout? Or was that part of
a dream?

Lifting the flap of the tent, she stared at the boy's place by the
fire. It was vacant. He was gone!

"Marian," she whispered, shaking her cousin into wakefulness. "Marian!
He's gone. The brown boy's gone!"

"Let him go. Who wants him?" Marian murmured sleepily.

At that instant Lucile's keen ears caught the groan of oarlocks.

"But I hear oars," she whispered hoarsely. "They've come for him.
Someone has carried him away. I heard him try to cry for help. We
must stop them if we can find a way."

Catching up their rifles they crept stealthily from their tents.
Nothing was to be seen save the camp and the forest.

"Think we better try to follow them?" asked Lucile, as she struggled
into her shoes, wrapping the laces round and round her ankles for the
sake of speed.

"I don't know," said Marian. "They're probably rough men and we're
only girls. But we must try to find out what has happened."

In a moment they were creeping stealthily, rifles in hand, toward the
beach. As they paused to listen they heard no sound. Either the
intruders had rounded the point or had stopped rowing.

Lucile threw the circle of her flashlight out to sea.

"Stop that!" whispered Marian in alarm. "They might shoot."

"Look!" exclaimed Lucile suddenly; "our boat's gone!"

Hastening down the beach, they found it was all too true; the rowboat
had disappeared.

"There weren't any men," exclaimed Marian with sudden conviction.
"That boy's taken our boat and rowed away."

"Yes, there were men," insisted Lucile. "I just saw a track in the
sand. There it is." She pointed to the beach.

An inspection of the sand showed three sets of footprin