leaped ashore and ran In the direction of the campfire.
"This way, fellows!" he cried. "I have the boat! Back to the raft! Back to the raft!" And he gave the well-known whistle.
In a few minutes he encountered Giant and Whopper and learned that Shep had gone forward, to find out what the cries at the lake front meant.
"We must get him to come back," he said. "You go down to the boats and the raft and get them ready to shove off on short notice." And he ran closer to the campfire.
The entire camp was now in wild commotion, for each lad present understood that all the boats were gone. Ham Spink and Carl Dudder were in a rage.
"We should have placed somebody on guard," cried Ham. "We were chumps not to do it."
"I didn't think anybody would be over here so quick," answered Carl. "How could they do it without a boat?"
"Maybe they had another boat," put in Ike Akley. "We missed it by not looking around a little closer."
"Whoever he is, he isn't rowing across the lake," said Ham. "Let us run along the shore and see if we can't get at him some way."
