"Who's there?" called a voice from the launch.

There was no reply. Harriet, in her haste to get away, splashed noisily.
She heard a quick exclamation, then the sound of two people jumping into
a rowboat. She knew it was the rowboat she had seen lying alongside the
launch. She knew, too, that the rowers were pursuing her. But even then
Harriet did not lose her presence of mind. Instead of doing so, she
dipped her oars and sent the boat shooting ahead, with the water
rippling away from the bows, making a noise that she feared her pursuers
would hear and thus be able to locate her position accurately. Harriet
had not once glanced over her shoulder, but her ears were on the alert
and by the sense of sound she was able to gauge the distance between
herself and the pursuing boat.

"They're gaining on me!" she muttered. "But I'm going to fool them just
the same."

CHAPTER XII

MAKING AN EXCITING DISCOVERY

The Meadow-Brook girl did not dare to go on and enter the secret channel
for fear of exposing the hiding place of the houseboat. She was watching
for some other nook into which to drive her boat. In case her pursuers
discovered her she determined to jump out and make her escape as best
she could, leaving the boat on the beach. Then a sudden idea occurred to
her.

Harriet picked up a tin dipper that lay in the boat and that had been
used for bailing. This she hurled as far out in the lake as she could
throw it. The dipper fell with a splash that was plainly heard both by
herself and those in the pursuing boat.

"Out there he is!" cried a voice in the other boat. She heard the
pursuers head out. Harriet took advantage of the opportunity to move
her rowboat ahead a few rods. She then turned it sharply to the shore.
The girl was fortunate in being able to find cover in the overhanging
foliage, behind which she took refuge. The water was quite shallow
there. The keel of the rowboat touched bottom. She heard the grating
sound as the boat grounded, but knew that she was not so firmly aground
that she could not get away.

The men in the rowboat found neither the dipper nor the boat of which
they were in pursuit. Instead of rowing on, they craftily turned sharply
in toward shore in order to get the benefit of the shadows. One within
the shadow could see out fairly well, but to one who was out in the
lake, the shores and the water for some rods about were enveloped in
blackness.

"Pull out a little, but keep clos