to one of the
staterooms--that usually occupied by Mrs. Stanhope and Dora. "Now you
stay in there and keep quiet, or it will be the worse for you," Baxter
went on to the girls.

As Nellie was pushed into the stateroom she fainted and pitched
headlong on the floor. Thoroughly alarmed, Dora raised her cousin in
her arms. At the same time Baxter shut the door and locked it from the
outside.

"Now, don't make a bit of noise, or you'll be sorry for it," he fairly
hissed, and his manner was so hateful that Dora was thoroughly cowed.

"What's the next move?" asked Flapp, when he and Baxter were on the
outside deck. He was too weak-minded to take a stand and placed himself
entirely under the guidance of his companion.

"Get the houseboat away from the shore and be quick about it," was the
reply. "Somebody else may be on the way here."

The order to push off was obeyed, and soon the _Dora_, caught by the
strong current of the river, was moving down the Ohio and away from the
vicinity of Skemport. The mist was now so thick that in a few minutes
the shore line was lost entirely to view.

"I must say, I don't like this drifting in the dark," said Flapp. "What
if we run into something!"

"We've got to take some risk. I'll light the lanterns as soon as we get
a little further away. You stand by with that long pole--in case the
houseboat drifts in toward shore again."

The _Dora_ had been provided with several long, patent sweeps, and for
a while both of the young rascals used these, in an endeavor to get the
houseboat out into the middle of the river. In the distance they saw
the lights of a steamboat and this was all they had to guide them.

"If we strike good and hard we'll go to the bottom," said Lew Flapp.

"Flapp, you are as nervous as a cat."

"Isn't it true?"

"I don't think so. Most of these boats are built in compartments. If
one compartment is smashed the others will keep her afloat."

"Oh, I see." And after that Lew Flapp felt somewhat relieved.

When the houseboat was well away from Skemport, Dan Baxter walked to
the door of the stateroom in which Dora and Nellie had been confined.

"Hullo, in there!" he called out.

"What do you want?" asked Dora, timidly.

"How is that other girl, all right?"

"Ye--yes," came from Nellie. "But, oh! Mr. Baxter, what does this mean?"

"Don't grow alarmed. I'm not going to hurt you in the least."

"Yes, but--but--we don't want to go with you."

"I'm sorry, but I