e to the shore," commanded a voice.
"That fellow played some sort of trick on us and has gone on. It's
curious we didn't hear him. Row fast and I'll keep watch. If he gets out
into the lake we've got him."

The rowboat shot past Harriet Burrell's hiding place so close that she
might have reached out an oar and touched it. She was tempted to give
the person in the stern of the boat a poke with her oar, but wisely
refrained from doing anything of the sort. After the boat had passed,
Harriet sat perfectly still, arms folded, a quiet smile on her face.

"Harriet Burrell, you are a pretty good scout, after all. You wouldn't
have made such a bad Indian. I'll rap on wood."

She drummed on the gunwale of the boat. "I hope they won't go far. The
girls will worry if I do not return soon. Still, Miss Elting will know
that there is a good reason for my remaining away so long. There they
come."

The rowboat was returning. The rowers were moving more slowly now,
talking and wondering as to the man who had been spying on them. They
passed her talking loudly. One of them was threatening vengeance. The
girl waited until they had rowed a safe distance from her, after which
she cautiously pushed her boat out and began rowing toward home. Harriet
was chuckling under her breath, but her eyes and ears were on the alert.
She had not forgotten that canoe. Any person who could paddle like that
was well worth looking out for.

Harriet rowed past the entrance to their retreat without having observed
it. But it was only a few moments later when she discovered her error.
She turned her boat more carefully this time, then rowed it into the
secret waterway. So quietly did she enter that her companions did not
discover her until the nose of her rowboat bumped the scow.

There was a little scream, quickly suppressed by Miss Elting.

"Is that you, Harriet?" she questioned, with no trace of alarm in her
voice.

"Yes."

"You were so quiet about it that you gave me the creeps," declared
Margery.

"Did you find them, Harriet?" asked Jane.

"Yes. And they came near to finding me too. They chased me nearly all
the way home. I hid in the bushes and waited. They passed me and came on
this way, I should judge nearly up to the entrance, after which they
turned about and went back. That isn't the only strange experience I
have had since I left you." Harriet related the incident of the
mysterious canoe.

"What were the men doing?"

"They were pitc