f I could only get up to one of those windows, I could easily break
the bars and try to jump out of it," speculated Madge aloud. "But,
alas, I am not a monkey! I can't climb straight up the side of a wall."

"You shall not try it, either," retorted Eleanor determinedly. "You
would break your neck if you tried to jump from one of those high
windows. Thank goodness, you can't climb up to them!"

"You were the wise one, Nell, and we wouldn't listen to you." Madge
eyed Eleanor mournfully. She had an overwhelming desire to burst into
tears.

"Don't take it so to heart, Madge," comforted her cousin. "Some one is
sure to come this way finally, if we only call long enough."

But the afternoon shadows lengthened and no one came. Gradually the
twilight fell, enveloping the big, bare room in hazy darkness. The
prisoners huddled together with white and weary faces. They thought of
their cosy houseboat with the little lamps lit in the dining room, and
the big lantern hanging in the bow, and of Miss Jones, who by this time
was no doubt anxiously waiting and watching for their return.

It was perhaps eight o'clock, although to the girls it seemed midnight,
when Lillian whispered:

"Girls, I hear some one coming this way. Phil was right; it was a
joke, after all. Whoever locked the door has come back to unlock it."

The girls smiled hopefully. After all, their experience did not amount
to anything. They would be back inside the houseboat in another hour.

The footsteps now sounded plainly just outside the cabin door.

"Won't you please unbar the door for us?" called Phil and Madge in
chorus. "Some one has locked us inside."

An elfish laugh answered them. Or was it the wind? Perhaps they had
heard no one after all. They strained their ears but heard no further
sound. Then the last bit of twilight vanished and night came down in
reality.

CHAPTER VIII

AN ANXIOUS NIGHT

Huddled together in the darkness, Phil and Madge endeavored to relieve
the strain of the situation by talking, but the very sound of their
voices dismayed them and they became silent. Finally Eleanor, who had
been leaning against Madge's shoulder, laid her head in her cousin's
lap and went to sleep. A little later Lillian, after receiving Madge's
assurance that she and Phil intended to keep watch, went to sleep also.

"Madge," Phil's voice trembled a little, "what do you suppose poor Miss
Jones will think? She won't have the le