"He's in such a beautiful, dewy, childlike, innocent sleep" said the motherly Mrs. Murcher, laying her hand softly on his brow. "Just the thing he needs; better than all the medicine in the world!" She was tempted to add, "or than all the watches!" Still Hatville did not relent. Without strongly suspecting Olly of taking the watch, he was yet determined to pursue his investigations, even if he broke the most beautiful, dewy, childlike, innocent slumber on earth. "Shake him!" he said. So Mrs. Murcher shook, gently at first, then more and more vigorously, saying, "Olly! Oliver! Olly Burdeen! Oliver Burdeen!" more and more loudly in his ear, until he suddenly sprang up with a muttered cry. "Stop that boat! stop that----she's running on the 'Old Cow'! Oh, boys!--where am I?" And, appearing to recognize Mrs. Murcher's presence for the first time, he rolled up his eyes and sank back with a groan on the pillow. CHAPTER XVI. A BAD AWAKING. "He's delirious!" whispered the landlady. "He's dreaming," replied the boarder. "Olly! Wake up a minute! What's become of my watch?" "Watch?" repeated Olly, still disguising his real fears in a well-feigned fictitious terror. "What watch? I thought I was in the water again!" His voice trembled, though not altogether from that more remote cause which he desired to impress upon the minds of spectators. "My watch, which I left hanging in the case beside my bureau when I went yachting yesterday," said Hatville, as much imposed upon as the sympathizing Mrs. Murcher herself. "What has become of it?" "Your watch?" Olly repeated, with a bewildered air, as if beginning dimly to comprehend the question. "How should I know? I've been away. I've been wrecked. Haven't they told you?" "You haven't the watch, _have_ you?" exclaimed the landlady. "His watch? Mr. Hatville's? Of course I haven't! What should I have his watch for?" The brunt of the inquiry thus met, Olly felt that he was acting his part very well, and took courage. Then somebody in the corridor whispered to Mr. Hatville, who immediately asked: "What boy was that who came here to the house for you last evening?" "Boy? I don't know of any boy!" said Olly. "You remember, Amy; you showed him upstairs," said Mrs. Merriman. "I know the one you mean; one of the Frog-End boys!" exclaimed Mrs. Murcher. "He said he and some friends of Olly's were camping on the beach, and they wanted him to join them. It can't be that _he_ took it!" "Who showed him upstairs? You, Amy?" cried Hatville. It was a moment of fearful suspense to Olly, who remembered what Perce had said of coming to invite him to their picnic, and learning that he had either sailed in the yacht or gone home to show his new clothes. He stopped breathing to hear Amy's reply, in clear, silvery tones, from the farther end of the corridor. "Yes; I showed him up, and pointed out Olly's room. Mrs. Murcher thought Olly was there, trying on his new clothes."