“Tommy, Tommy, what is the matter?” cried Harriet, springing to the little girl’s side.

“I thaw the motht terrible fathe,” moaned Tommy.  “Oh, thave me.”

“Nonsense, Tommy,” laughed Harriet.

“You’ve just had one of those nightmares you were talking about when you bade us good night.”

“No, thir,” reiterated Tommy.  “I thaw thomething.  It wath a man and he thtood right in front of the window.  You thee I wath dreaming that Buthter wath a pirate, and wath trying to thmother me with a thofa pillow and all of a thudden I that up in bed and thaw thith fathe looking in the window at me.  That ith why I thcreamed,” concluded Tommy, with dignity.  “I didn’t have the nightmare.  I tell you I thaw a fathe.”

“How ridiculous,” sniffed Buster.  “How could she see a face when we are away out here on the lake.  Why look!” she continued, stepping to the window.  “It’s bright moonlight, and there isn’t a boat to be seen on the water.”

“Buthter doethn’t know what I thaw,” retorted Tommy angrily.  “Thhe hathn’t my eyeth hath thhe?  Buthter maketh me tired.”

“There, there, girls,” reproved Miss Elting.  “That will do.  Harriet, I think you and I had better dress, then get into the rowboat and do a little investigating.  Perhaps some prowler has visited the boat while we were asleep.  Light the lamp, Jane, and we’ll see if all our belongings are safe.”

Jane and Hazel made a rapid search about the boat while Harriet and Miss Elting were dressing.  Meanwhile Tommy and Margery sat on the edges of their cots and conducted a spirited argument as to whether Tommy really had seen a “fathe” at the window.

“All ready,” called Harriet as she ran to where the rowboat was fastened.  Then she gave a little cry of alarm that brought Miss Elting and the others to her side on the run.

“What is it, Harriet?” cried the guardian.

Harriet stood looking out over the water, a piece of rope in her hand.  “Some one has stolen our rowboat,” she gasped.  “See, the rope has been cut.”

“Then the Tramp Club must have come over here again in the night and stolen it,” decided Miss Elting.  “Still that would hardly account for the face Tommy saw at the window, and she is positive that she really saw some one.  I am inclined to think, however, that she had the nightmare, and simply dreamed about that frightful face.”

“I can’t see that there is anything particularly clever or original about stealing a rowboat in the dead of night,” said Harriet slowly, “and I don’t believe that the boys would think so either.  There is something peculiar about this affair and I believe that the Tramp Club have had nothing to do with this latest puzzle.”

“That ith what I think,” agreed Tommy.  “It wathn’t thothe boyth that thcared me tho.”

“Nothing has been stolen from the boat,” declared Hazel, “so it looks as though our midnight prowler vanished when he heard Tommy’s first scream.”