laughing voices, stirred her
imaginative temperament as the sunshine awakens flowers. The earlier
thought of her father that had threatened to cloud her pleasure
disappeared and she gave herself up to the enticement of the gay scene
and the invitation of the music.

It was after midnight before the ball ended. Tom's car was at the hotel
entrance to take the tired but enthusiastic girls and their chaperon
down to the landing where the launch lay ready to take them to the
"Merry Maid."

"I've had the most glorious time," exulted Lillian.

"And I," was the chorus.

"It was too delightful for words," declared Madge, with shining eyes.
Then the light suddenly left them and she became strangely silent. "I
forgot you, Father," she said under her breath. "I was so busy having a
good time I didn't ask a single officer if he knew that dreadful man.
But another time I'll not forget. I'll find out where he is before we
leave here if there is any possible way to do it."

CHAPTER IV

THE CHALLENGE

"I declare, Miss Jenny Ann," declared Madge fervently, "I believe I was
born to live on a houseboat, I feel so perfectly at home. Do you think
I care so much for the sea because my father was a sailor?"

"I suppose you do, my dear," returned the chaperon, who sat listening
to Madge's animated chatter with an indulgent smile.

Several days had passed since the ball, and the girls had settled down
to a thorough enjoyment of their floating home. Madge, who was looking
particularly pretty in her sailor suit of blue serge, had been
energetically sweeping the decks. Now she paused for a moment to lean
on her broom and survey Miss Jenny Ann reflectively.

The "Merry Maid" now lay at anchor along a stretch of sandy beach, in a
cove formed by a point of land that jutted out into the bay. It was the
quietest spot Tom Curtis could find in the vicinity. But the landing
was so near the mouth of the great Chesapeake Bay that, should a storm
blow in from the Atlantic Ocean, the houseboat would probably be lashed
by the waves. There was no shade along the beach, so Mrs. Curtis had
transformed the houseboat into a charming Japanese pagoda. Mammoth
Japanese umbrellas were swung above the decks. The latter were covered
with pretty straw mats. There was a dainty green tea table securely
fastened near the stern, with half a dozen green chairs near it. The
window boxes around the upper deck of the boat had been refilled with
bright scarlet