the foot of the lake, nearly ten miles away.

For a moment all was confusion in the camp. Awakened suddenly from a
sound sleep, the Scouts could not at first tell what had happened.

The sentry who gave the alarm had seen only the one thing--the motor
boat backing out from the beach.

"It's nothing," said Bob Hart, sleepily. "Someone mistook this for
their own landing, and, when they found out their mistake, backed out
and went for their own cottage."

But Dick Crawford thought suddenly of Jack Danby.

"Jack!" he shouted. "Jack Danby!"

There was no answer, and a swift rush to his lean-to proved that it was
empty. Durland and Dick Crawford ran there together, and Durland
recognized the smell of the chloroform at once.

"There's been foul play here!" he cried, furiously. "Someone has
drugged Jack and carried him away."

He called for Crawford then, but the Assistant Scout-Master was already
gone to the rescue.

"Get to the outlet as soon as you can!" he shouted, and they heard him
breaking through the woods to the road that was near by. "I'm going
there on my wheel!"

Dick had ridden to the camp on his motorcycle, and now they heard the
sharp clatter of its engine as he started it.

"If they're making for the outlet, he'll head them off," said Durland.
"Hart, take your Patrol and go up to the dam there, in case they went
that way. The rest of you follow me. We'll take Crawford's route,
and see if we can't get there in time to help him. I'm afraid Danby is
in the gravest sort of danger."

They followed him with a shout, half dressed as most of them were.
Jack Danby didn't lack friends, at least, even if he did have powerful
and determined enemies.

CHAPTER VIII

THE RESCUE

Needless to say, it was some time after he was roughly thrown into the
bottom of the motor boat before Jack came to his senses. The
chloroform had taken effect quickly, and the soaked handkerchief had
not remained very long over his mouth and nostrils, or Jack might have
ended his career then and there. As it was, however, the rush of the
cool night air as the swift motor boat sped along the quiet waters of
the lake did a good deal to revive him, and it was, comparatively
speaking, only a short time before he realized where he was--or,
rather, realized that he had been snatched from his blanket, and was
being carried off somewhere, probably by those who had anything but
good-will toward him.

His first impulse wa