out the room. Grant was
laughing almost as loudly as his companion, although he did not move
from the place where he was standing.

"Give us a hand," called Fred. "I can't see the ladder."

"It's right in front of you," suggested George, advancing to the edge
and looking down into the water which was only about four feet below
him. "There it is. Follow the sound of my voice."

"I don't see what there is so funny about all this," sputtered Fred as
he climbed to the floor.

"Funny!" exclaimed Grant. "It beats anything I ever experienced."

"What's the trouble?" demanded John, who now also had climbed out of
the water. His elongated form only partly clothed, his garments
dripping and clinging to his slim body, increased the weirdness of his
appearance.

"I think the joke's on George more than even it is on Peewee and
String," laughed Grant.

At this moment Sam, who had been asleep in his room appeared, rubbing
his eyes and gazing in surprise at the boys. "What's wrong?" he
demanded gruffly.

"Nothing," said George, beginning to laugh again.

"It seems to me you make lots of fuss when nothin' is the matter. What
are you all down here for anyway?"

"Why, George got us down here to help him get a man who was in the
boat-house."

"Huh, what's that you say?"

"Why, George discovered somebody in the boat-house and he routed us all
out to help him get him."

"Did you get him?" inquired Sam.

"We got all there was to get," laughed Grant.

"What do you mean?" demanded Sam, looking around the room and for the
first time suspecting what had taken place.

"Why, we mean that you had that wax figure of yours down here and we
all thought it was a man."

"I don't blame you," said Sam solemnly. "That's one of the best wax
dummies I ever made."

"But why did you leave it where you did?" inquired George.

"Why, I figured it out this way," said Sam slowly. "If a scarecrow will
keep crows out of a cornfield, why couldn't I rig up something to scare
off anybody that wanted to damage the Black Growler?"

"That's good sense," said Grant soberly.

"Of course it is sense," declared Sam. "I put the dummy down there so
that if anybody looked into the boat-house he would see it and he would
think somebody was on guard."

"That's right," said Fred. "We had two dummies on guard to-night. One
inside the boat-house and one outside."

"That may be all true," spoke up George, "but there was only one of
them that followed you