“Cast off,” yelled George, the last to leap into the boat.

The launch was shoved from the shore and allowed to drift while the boys sat shivering, listening to the wails from the forest.

“Good-bye,” answered Sam.

“Fellows, we are all cowards,” declared George, beginning to get control of himself.  “We should have staid and knocked them out.”

“I’ll go back, if you say so,” answered Billy promptly.

“No.  I’ve got enough of this place.  To-morrow morning we break camp and go back to the other camping place.  No more ghost parties for mine.”

“As long as we have decided to move why not go now,” suggested Larry.

The boys discussed the matter briefly, then decided that they would.  Sam was put on guard to watch for the return of the ghosts while the others hurriedly broke camp.  But there were no more ghostly moans nor ghostly intruders that night.

The ghosts in the persons of the Meadow-Brook Girls were on their way to their rowboat.  Beaching it they sat down and laughed until their eyes were wet with tears.

“It was a mean trick to play on them,” gasped Miss Elting.  “But I think we have more than won our wager.  It is a wonder that they didn’t suspect us.”

“There goes a boat!” cried Jane.  “It’s a launch.”

“It is the boys.  We have frightened them off,” answered Miss Elting.

The girls rowed quickly home, but ere they had reached the entrance to the secret creek they were startled by the sound of a shrill scream.  They recognized the voice as Tommy’s and began to shout, and to row with all their might.  A moment later, just as they were about to turn into the opening with their boat, a canoe shot out and darted across their bows, disappearing in the darkness.

“A man, a man!” yelled Tommy as Harriet shouted to know if the two girls were all right.  Tommy threw open the door and in her excitement walked off the after deck of the “Red Rover” and fell forward into the stream.

“Jane, do you recognize that man?” cried Harriet excitedly.

“Yes,” exclaimed Jane, “he’s the man I saw this afternoon, and he’s our mysterious enemy too, or my name’s not Jane McCarthy.”

CHAPTER XXIII

ON A STORMY CRUISE

It was late on the following forenoon when the Meadow-Brook Girls might have been observed towing the “Red Rover” out from the creek in which it had been anchored.  They decided that it was high time to leave.

During their absence, and while they were frightening the Tramp Club with sheets draped over sticks and carried high above their heads, Tommy and Margery had been having an exciting experience.  They had been anxiously peering out of the cabin, when after an hour or so they discovered a canoe approaching the scow.  At first they thought it one of their own party who was paddling the canoe.  They soon discovered that it was a man.  The girls were too frightened to do more than watch him in almost breathless silence.  But when the man climbed aboard the after deck, after satisfying himself that the boat was deserted, they decided that it was time to move.