tled."

It was only a half hour or thereabouts after the automobile had gone,
the boy stated, his tones still filled with alarm, when he and MacLester
heard cries from across the lake. They had washed and put away the dishes
left to their attention, and were sitting down by the water, thinking it
cooler on the beach. Some refuse they had thrown on the campfire blazed
up, making quite a bright light. Like a distant whistle of a railroad
engine there came a little later a long, loud cry, "Hello-o!"

"Well, hello!" MacLester cried in answer, Chip stated, telling his story
clearly, but so slowly Paul was fairly bursting with impatience. There was
more "hollering" of hellos, the lad went on, then the voice from over
the water asked, "Could ye put me up fer the night?" Dave answered, "Yes,
come on over." Replies came back, "Have ye a boat?" and "Could ye not
kindly row across fer me?"

The outcome of the whole matter was that MacLester remarked to Chip that
they would wait until Phil and the others returned.

"'Would you be afraid to cross over alone?' I asked him," said Slider,
"an' I meant just a fair question, but he turned quick as a cat.

"'Who said I was afraid?' he spoke pretty sharp. Then he hollered out to
the party that had been yellin', 'Keep singing out to guide me an' I'll
paddle over to you.'

"He got in the boat and started and never a word he said. Every minute
or two I heard the other one and Dave hollerin' out to each other till
about the time when the boat could have touched t'other shore. Then it
was still an' I ain't heard a word since. I've yelled an' yelled an' kept
the fire blazin' up to steer 'em straight to this here side, but never a
word of answer did I get an' hide nor hair of 'em I ain't seen."

"Could it have been that fellow Murky? Would you know his voice?" asked
Billy.

Chip shook his head. He was quite sure the voice was not that of the
person mentioned.

"He could disguise his voice easy enough," spoke Paul dejectedly. "Dave
could swim all night, but the other fellow--"

"Now wait a minute!" interrupted Phil briskly, feeling that he simply
_must_ face the situation with courage, bad as it might be. He hurried
down to the beach. Loudly and again and again he called, "Oh! Dave," and
"Oh, David MacLester!"

No answer came to his despairing cries. Softly the water lapped the sand
at his feet. In the distance the frogs were croaking. Darkness too deep to
let even the outlines of the