Tommy leaped up, and started to run.

“Wait!” commanded Harriet.  “Let’s make sure what they are going to do before we run away.  We may have to creep across that open space there.  I think they can see it from the lake.  If they are coming to land on the island they will have to go farther to the right.  That will be our time to get back.”

But the Tramp Club had no intention of landing at that moment.  They were nearing the island for the purpose of looking it over.  When they had come as close as they cared to run they turned the boat sharply and moved along at a slower rate of speed.  They were out of sight of the girls a few moments after that.

“Now for the boat.  They are going around to the other side of the island,” declared Harriet.  “I think our plan is going to work.”

* * * * *

For some reason George Baker was considerably interested in that island.  There were many other islands in the lake, but this one had come to hold a sort of fascination for him.

“I don’t believe they are over there,” reflected George.

“We should have seen them yesterday if they had been,” answered Billy Gordon.  “It’s a jolly place, though.  We’ll come over here and camp when we get ready.  It is seldom that any one goes there.”

“Where’s that farmhouse we saw yesterday?” questioned Sam.

“On the other side of the lake, about half way down,” answered Gordon.  “There is a pier there so we can land.”

Of course all of this the Meadow-Brook Girls did not hear.  But, having reached the houseboat, they made their way down the inlet, and were near the mouth of it when they sighted the motor boat on that side of the island.  The girls saw it head straight for the pier where Harriet had landed the previous evening on her way to the farmhouse for supplies.  The boys tied up the boat and two of them got out and went up the slope toward the farmhouse.

The two boys, George and Billy, returned to the motor boat walking rapidly.

“Did you find out anything?” called Sam.

“Yes.”

“Anything wrong?” asked Larry.

“I don’t know.  It’s a puzzle,” replied Captain Baker.  “Two of them were up at that farmhouse last night.  The queer thing about it is that the woman up there saw the ‘Red Rover’ lying down here yesterday.  Then the boat was gone when she looked again.  I don’t understand it.”

“Some one gave them a tow.  Don’t you tumble to that?” asked Sam.

“Where to?”

“I give it up.  I don’t know.”

“If nothing has happened them they can’t be far away, or the girls wouldn’t have gone up there last night.”

“What time were they there, George?”

“Some time after dark.  I didn’t ask the time.  I asked the woman if they were coming again.  She said she didn’t know.  I told her we would come back later in the day, and, if she saw either of the girls in the meantime, to tell them that we wished to know where they are, as we had something to tell them.  It was after dark when they were there.  I don’t know what to make of it.”