"Help! help! Simon! Simon! Help me!" came in the voice of a woman. CHAPTER IV THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BOAT "Something is wrong sure!" exclaimed Snap, as the cry from the farmhouse was repeated. He looked below and saw that Pop Lundy was running away, in the direction of the cry for assistance. "Now is our chance to get away!" cried Whopper, and dropped to the ground, while the others did the same. "Wait!" came from Snap. "That sounds as if somebody was in great trouble. Hadn't we better go and see what it means?" "And get caught by Pop Lundy?" queried Giant. "I don't care," put in Shep. "If I can help a lady I am going to do it." He hurried off in the direction Simon Lundy had taken and one after another his chums followed. To get to the back door of the farmhouse they had to pass around a chicken house and a pig sty, and as they were doing this they saw a burly negro leap a rail fence not far away. "What is it, Jane?" they heard the farmer cry, as he dashed into the house. There was no reply, and coming to the door, the four boys saw that the farmer's wife lay back in a kitchen chair in a dead faint. "Sumbuddy hez killed her, I guess!" moaned Simon Lundy. "Oh, where is the villain?" "She isn't dead, only fainted," answered Shep, who had assisted his father on more than one occasion. "Got some smelling salts in the house?" "I dunno. Ye kin look in the closets." Shep and the others did so, and soon the son of the physician found something that was beneficial. Yet it was several minutes before the lady of the farm came to her senses and opened her eyes. "Where is he?" she murmured. "Take him away! Take him away!" "Who are ye a-talkin' about, Jane?" demanded the husband. "Thet---he---oh, Simon, is it you? Why didn't you come before?" "Couldn't---cos I had these young whelps up an apple tree. But wot is it all about anyhow?" "The big negro---he wanted something to eat, and then he got saucy and he picked up your watch from the mantelpiece-----" "My watch!" The miserly farmer sprang to the mantelpiece. "It's gone, sure enough!" he groaned. "I saw the negro!" cried Snap. "He jumped that fence out there as we came up." "That's right," put in Whopper. "He was running like a house afire, too." "Where did he go?" Nobody knew, but some thought he might have taken to the road. Finding his wife had not been harmed, only badly scared, Simon Lundy ran out to the road and gazed up and down, and the boys did the same. "I don't see nuthin'," said Pop Lundy. "Let us run down the road a bit, fellows," suggested Shep. "Will ye come back?" asked the farmer, anxiously. "I---er---I won't say nuthin' about them apples." "Yes, we'll be back," answered Snap. The boys spent the best part of an hour on the road, hunting up and down for some trace of the negro, but without success. They knew he was short and stocky and wore a light, checked suit, but that was all.