In the meantime Harriet and Jane had drawn away from the others and were
engaged in a whispered conversation. Then the two girls got into the
rowboat dragged the houseboat out into the lake, a few rods, and
anchored it. They did not explain their action. The other girls laughed
at them, and Miss Elting questioned them with her eyes but said nothing.
She knew the two girls had some good reason for anchoring the "Red
Rover" a little distance from the shore.

Early on the following morning, Jane and Harriet were out, loading the
automobile with the supplies that had been delivered at the hotel the
previous night. The car was piled high with bundles of various shapes
and sizes. There was room for Jane and Harriet in front, but none for
their companions elsewhere.

"We will go down to the dock with the stuff," explained Harriet, "then
come back in time to take breakfast with you girls. We shan't try to put
the supplies on board. We'll just dump them on the pier."

"You can put them on the boat if you want to. I don't care," answered
Grace.

"Tommy is trying to get out of working to-day," scoffed Margery.

"I'm not," protested the little lisping girl indignantly. "If I were ath
fat ath you, I might. I'll work after breakfatht, but I won't work
before breakfatht."

"Nobody wants you to," flung back Jane, as she started her car ahead.
"We'll do all the before-breakfast work, and we'll have the real
appetites when we get to the food. You watch us."

They watched her skid around a sharp corner and heard her car for some
few moments thereafter, but that was all. They were too well used to
Crazy Jane McCarthy, by this time, to be surprised at anything she might
do or say.

The drive to Johnson's dock was a short one. The two girls made it in a
few moments. As they turned into the street that led down to the river
they opened their eyes a little wider, but neither spoke. Nor was there
a word said until they had driven out on the pier and halted the car.
Then both girls burst out in exclamations of amazement at the same
instant.

That which they discovered filled the hearts of the Meadow-Brook Girls
with alarm. The "Red Rover" was nowhere in sight. The shore end of the
rope, with which it had been secured to the dock when they anchored it
out in the lake, was still securely tied to the string piece at the
outer side of the dock.

"What is it, darlin'?" questioned Jane, with eyes wide and wondering.

"It looks to me ver