“I’m going to mount guard for the rest of the night,” announced Jane.  “It’s half past two now, and by five o’clock it will be light.  The rest of you can go back to bed, and if any one else comes sneaking around this boat, he’ll have to come forward and state his business to Jane McCarthy.”

CHAPTER XVII

A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE

It seemed to the tired girls as though they had hardly closed their eyes when they heard Jane call out:  “Seven o’clock.  All hands on deck.”

“I’m tho thleepy,” murmured Tommy as she struggled into her clothes.

“I’m pretty near dead,” growled Hazel.  “I think I’ll never get rested.”

“Do let’s hurry and have breakfast,” pleaded Margery, “I’m so hungry.”

“Chronic thtate,” murmured Tommy.

“I don’t have nightmares and wake every one up in the middle of the night,” retorted Margery, “even if I do get hungry sometimes.”

“My nightmare wath utheful, Buthter,” returned Tommy calmly.  “It helped uth to dithcover that our boat wath gone.  But your appetite ithn’t the leatht bit utheful, not even to yourthelf.”

“I’ll never speak to you again, Tommy Thompson,” declared Buster wrathfully.

“That maketh me feel very thad, Buthter,” replied Tommy sarcastically.

Breakfast was prepared and eaten in record time that morning.  Then the dishes were speedily washed and put away.  The Tramp Club’s camp showed no activity until after eight o’clock, when the smoke from their cook fire was observed curling up through the foliage on the shore of the Island of Delight.  A long-drawn “Hoo-oo-oo” from the camp told the girls that they had been observed by some of the boys.

Before nine o’clock the launch put out and sailed rapidly over to the “Red Rover.”

“We didn’t come to call.  We just ran over to see what time you wished to go for a sail?” asked Billy Gordon.

“Come right on board, boys.  We finished our work shortly after daylight this morning.  You see we are early risers,” replied Miss Elting.

The lads needed no urging.  They hopped to the after deck of the houseboat.  But no sooner had they come aboard than they perceived that something was amiss.  George glanced at Harriet inquiringly.

“What’s the matter with you girls, this morning?” he asked lamely.

“We had considerable excitement here last night.  We were visited by pirates,” said the guardian.

The boys flushed guiltily.

“But that is not all,” added Jane McCarthy.  “We were visited later in the night by a real thief.”

“Wha—­at!” gasped George, somehow feeling that they were involved.

“We will tell you all about it.  Come upstairs, where we can sit down in comfort and talk.  Perhaps we may ask you to assist us in finding the thief,” said Miss Elting.

The boys followed the girls to the upper deck, and after they had seated themselves Miss Elting related what had happened.  “Now, boys,” she concluded, “have you the remotest idea as to who could have taken the boat?”