“No one,” replied Joe. “Nobody ever has a boat stolen in this harbour. Some one who wanted to cross the cove has borrowed it. We shall find it all right in the morning,—but that don’t help us out now. It’s provoking enough, and strange, too, after all, that the one who took it didn’t step up to the cottage and let us know, as the cottage is so near. But boats are almost common property here; any man in the harbour would lend us his boat in a minute.” “We must do the next best thing,” said Arthur, “and take one from the slip at the wharf. No one will want his boat at this hour.” “Though some one does seem to want ours,” broke in Joe. “Curious, isn’t it, that whoever it is should come around into the cove and get our boat, when there are any number at the slip?” It certainly was rather strange. Following Arthur’s suggestion, the boys proceeded to the slip and embarked in a big dory, the property of Captain Sam. Then they rowed quickly across the cove. It took them but a few minutes to reach the other shore, for the cove was smooth as glass. They headed for the bluff, and pointed directly into the black, shadowy hole which they knew to be the natural landing-place. It was a peculiar, narrow little dock, completely rock-bound, except for the passage leading into it. It lay entirely in the shadow, but they had landed there before, and knew just where to steer for a shelf, or ledge, of rock that made a natural slip. Still, their familiarity with the place did not prevent them from bumping suddenly into a rowboat that lay moored there. They pushed it aside to make a landing, and found to their amazement that it was their own. “Hulloa!” cried George, springing out on to the broad, shelving ledge; “that is queerer still. Here’s the old _Anna_, and what in the world is she doing here? Who can have brought her? And what for? There’s something strange about it. Why, there isn’t a man in the village that would dare go near the haunted house at night, and yet somebody is over here now, for some reason.” If it were possible for Henry Burns to be excited ever, he was so now. “Get in here, quick, George,” he said, “and don’t make any noise. I think I know what it means, and I’ll tell you just as soon as we get out of here. We can’t get away any too soon, either.” “Why not take the _Anna_ out with us?” said young Joe, “and pay somebody off for running away with it? He would only have to walk a few miles around the cove to get back again—” “No, no, leave the boat where it is,” said Henry Burns. “And let’s get out of here quick.” “Why, what’s the matter with you, Henry?” asked George, jumping back into the boat and giving it a vigorous shove off. “Any one would think to see you that some one was being murdered up there.” Henry Burns’s earnestness was sufficient to convince them, however, that something serious was involved in their actions, and they made haste to get out into the cove again.