“Well, they are all right, so what’s the use in worrying?” asked Larry.

“Yes, they aren’t drowned.  I haven’t any too much confidence in that old scow.  It is likely to spring a leak and go down any old time,” declared Billy Gordon.  “I wouldn’t trust myself in it over night.”

“You are not likely to get the chance,” jeered Sam.  “What are we going to do now?”

“Go on to Wantagh, then to camp.  We will come back before supper.  While we are out we’ll make inquiries.  Some one may have seen the boat.  It probably is laid up in a cove somewhere along this shore,” decided George.

“We should have seen it if it had been,” replied Billy.

“How about that island?  Is there any place along the shore where they could hide the boat?” questioned Baker.

Billy shook his head.

“You have seen the whole island.  We went all the way around it yesterday.  It is my opinion that they are going to tie the score.”

“I am beginning to think so myself.  But we’ll beat them yet,” chuckled Larry Goheen.

“We will have to wake up in the morning earlier than we usually do,” returned George.  “You ought to have seen the way they won that walking match.  Outwit the Meadow-Brook Girls three times in succession.  Well, try it!”

“If they are so smart, what’s the use in bothering about them?” answered Larry.

“Because I don’t propose to have them get the best of us every time,” returned George.  “That’s why I made this wager.”

“They didn’t get the best of us the other night, did they?” grinned Billy.  “We’re one trick ahead.”  All the boys except George laughed heartily over some little joke of their own.

“Look here, fellows,” said Baker.  “We think we are mighty smart, but I’m telling you that we may not be as smart as we believe.  They may be laughing at us all the time.”

The two boys got into the launch and Billy started the motor.  The launch backed away, turned slowly about, then followed nearly the same course that it had on the previous day.  This time it crept along still closer to the Island of Delight.  The girls, who were watching it, crouched low, almost flattening themselves on the ground in their efforts to avoid discovery.  The boys, at one time, seemed to be gazing right at them.

Yet even with this keen study of the shores of the island the Tramp Club boys passed by the entrance to the anchorage of the “Red Rover” without having discovered the little inlet.

“I’m going over there to find out what they found out,” cried Harriet.  “Who is going along?  Tommy, I’ll take you, Hazel and Margery this time if you wish to go.  You haven’t been out with me at all.”

The four got into the small boat and rowed across the water to the same landing where less than half an hour before the boys’ boat had been tied up.  What Harriet learned at the farmhouse, filled her with delight.