and made fast to the rowboat.

"Might as well give it up," said Dan Baxter, sarcastically. "It's no
use, as you can see."

"Oh, Mr. Baxter, do let us go!" pleaded Nellie, more terrorized than
ever before.

"Not much! You have got to go back to the houseboat."

At this Nellie gave a loud scream, and Dora immediately followed with
a prolonged call for help.

"Shut them up!" came from Pick Loring. "There are a whole lot of
people living around here."

Without answering, Dan Baxter leaped into the rowboat and took Dora
by the arm roughly.

"If you don't shut up, I'll gag you!" he cried.

"Let me go!" she said, and struck at him feebly. While this was going
on Pick Loring came over and took hold of Nellie.

"Tow us along, Sculley!" called the horse thief. "Get back to the
houseboat as soon as you can."

"What's the matter out there?" came in an unexpected call from the
shore. The speaker could not be seen.

"Help us!" shrieked Dora. "We are two girls and some men are carrying
us off."

"You don't say so!" ejaculated the speaker on shore.

"Tell the Rover boys!" called out Nellie. "Dan Baxter is taking us
down the river on the houseboat."

"Save us, and we will pay you well," added Dora, and then Baxter's
not over cleanly hand was clapped over her mouth, and she could say
no more. Loring's hand was likewise placed over Nellie's mouth, and
then the launch began to tow the rowboat back into midstream once more.

The poor girls were utterly disheartened and dropped back on the
seats in something close to a faint.

"This is a mess," growled Dan Baxter. "Have you any idea who that
was that called from the shore?"

"Some kind of a watchman," answered Loring. "We have got to get out
of this neighborhood in railroad time or the jig's up," he added.

"Well, I'm willing."

It did not take long to catch up to the houseboat, which was drifting
down the river in the fashion it had pursued before being towed by
the Lunch. Flapp and Hamp Gouch were waiting impatiently on the deck.

"Got 'em?" asked Lew Flapp.

"Yes, but we had no time to spare," returned Dan Baxter. "Two minutes
more and they would have been ashore."

"After this maybe we had better stand guard over them, Baxter."

"Just what I have been thinking."

Once alongside of the houseboat, the two girls were forced on board
once more and taken to the stateroom next to that which they had
before occupied.

The window was locked up and nailed and af