"I wonder if those other rascals are near?" questioned Fred.
They looked all around, but soon reached the conclusion that Solly Jackson was alone. Then they shook the fellow and roused him. He had evidently been drinking, but he was now almost sober.
"What's the matter?" he demanded, sleepily. "Lemme alone, Pold."
"Wake up, you rascal!" cried Dick. "You're not on the launch."
"What's the reason I ain't?" stammered Solly Jackson. "Oh, she got on fire, didn't she? Well, let her burn!" And he attempted to go to sleep again.
"You'll wake up!" cried Harold Bird, and between them he and Dick shook the fellow until he was thoroughly aroused. When he realized his position he was greatly alarmed.
"Oh, gentlemen, it's all a mistake," he whined. "I—er—I didn't run off with the launch, or the houseboat either. All a mistake, I tell you!"
"It was a mistake," answered Dick, grimly. "And you'll find it so when you are behind the prison bars."
"Whe—where are the others?"
"That is what we want to know," said Tom. "Where did you leave them?"
"Ain't they here?"
