, undoubtedly, despite the
awful tragedy the Point was so soon to witness--Captain Phil carried his
philosophy rather gingerly, as it were, when he stepped up on the porch
to knock. In other words, he stepped very lightly. Still his rapping was
right sharp and it should have brought a response had there been anyone
within hearing, willing to make answer.

Peering in at the windows, the boys could see nothing in any way different
than when they had been at the house the first time.

"I tell you whoever _was_ here has gone," said MacLester for the fourth
or fifth time, and he tried the door. It was locked. The door at the
rear,--that is, the one opening upon the high porch facing the lake,
was likewise tightly secured.

"Now then," said Phil, resolutely, "we're face to face with the question
that has been in my mind all night. What are we going to do next? And I'll
tell you what we _are_ going to do. We have no right to go into the
house--no right at all, one way you look at it. But that isn't the answer.
We are helping Chip Slider with his search for money that was stolen
and hidden, and that ought to be found and returned to its owners. Then
it's _necessary_ that we go in this clubhouse and _we're going in_."

"Paul knows the way up through the cellar! Let him get in at the window
he got out of and so go up the cellar stairs and open the door for us.
There's a key inside, likely," proposed Billy.

"Say! how'd you like to take a run and jump off the dock?" answered young
Mr. Jones with more fervor than elegance. "No, sir! We can find some other
window open!"

And Paul was right. A surprise awaited the boys when they reached the west
side of the house. (The path from front to rear passed on the east of the
building.) The brush and a couple of tall trees grew very close to the
walls at the westerly side. Phil was foremost as the friends ventured in
that direction.

"Look!" he cried suddenly. "A window open, and more than that, it's
smashed to smithereens!"

Quite true it was. The fragments of glass littered the parched and
stunted grass. The sash of the window was raised to its fullest height.
A freshly broken branch of a low bush, close by, was evidence that
the mischief had been done but recently.

The boys could only guess by whom and for what purpose the window had been
shattered. The thought came to them that Murky might have been doing some
investigating inside. Possibly he was in the house at this very min