“Wait,—­until I make sure that nobody is around!” whispered Dora.  She was so agitated she could scarcely speak.

She opened the door cautiously and looked out.  Not a soul was in sight.  From the galley came a steady hum of voices and a rattle of pots and dishes.

“They are too busy to watch us just now—­the way is clear,” she whispered.  “Come on.”

“Let us lock the door behind us, and stuff the keyhole,” answered Nellie.  “Then they will think we are inside and won’t answer.”

This was done, and with their hearts beating wildly the two girls stole to the end of the houseboat, where lay the small rowboat Dora had mentioned.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SEARCH ON THE RIVER

As may be surmised, the news which Dick and Tom had to tell to the others at the stock farm produced great excitement.

“Dora and Nellie gone!” gasped Mrs. Stanhope.  “Oh, Dick, what has become of them?”

“They must have gotten into some trouble!” cried Mrs. Laning.  “You found no trace of them?”

“We did not,” said Tom.  “But we tried hard enough, I can assure you.”

“Oh, what shall we do?” wailed Mrs. Stanhope, and then she fainted away, and it was a good quarter of an hour before she could be restored.

All the boys were highly excited, and Sam was for making a search for the missing houseboat without delay.

“They may have gone on board and Captain Starr may have sailed off with them,” said the youngest Rover.  “Remember, he is a queer stick, to say the least.”

“That doesn’t explain the screams I heard,” said Tom.

“I dink me dot Paxter got somedings to do mit dis,” said Hans.  “He vos a rascals from his hair to his doenails alretty!”

“The only thing to do is to make a search,” came from Songbird Powell.  “I’m ready to go out, rain or no rain.”

They were all ready, and in the end it was decided that all of the boys should prosecute the hunt, leaving Mrs. Stanhope, Mrs. Laning, and Grace with the wife of the proprietor of the stock farm.  The proprietor himself, a Kentuckian named Paul Livingstone, said he would go with them.

“If there has been foul play of any sort I will aid you to have justice done,” said Paul Livingstone.  “To me this whole thing looks mightily crooked.”

“One thing is certain,—­if the houseboat was stolen, the mist and rain will aid the thieves to get away with her,” said Dick.

It was a rather silent crowd that rode into Skemport an hour and a half later.  Here a doctor was roused up and sent to the stock farm, to see if Mrs. Stanhope needed him, for she was weak and might collapse completely when least expected.

Once at the spot where the Dora had been tied up, another search was begun for the girls and the houseboat.  Some went up the shore and others down, each with a lantern which had been provided to dispel the gloom.