"How was the girl dressed?" cried Dick.
"She had on a light-blue dress and a sailor hat."
"And the boys?"
"One was dressed in gray and the other in dark-blue or black."
"That was the boat! Where did she go?" ejaculated Dick, who remembered well how Mumps and Baxter had been attired, and the pretty dress and hat Dora was in the habit of wearing.
"She was bound straight down the river."
"We must follow her."
"That's the talk!" burst out Tom. "But how?"
"What do you want to follow the Flyaway for?" asked Martin Harris curiously.
"Those two boys are running away with that girl."
"Impossible!"
"No, it isn't. One of the fellows — the fellow in dark clothing — is the chap who ran into us that day."
"Well, now, do you know I thought it looked like him," was Harris' comment. "And, come to think of it, that boat got as far away from me as she could."
"Do you think you would know her again — I mean the Flyaway — if we got anywhere near her?" asked Dick.
"I think I would, lad. She had a rather dirty mainsail and jib, and each had a new patch of white near the top. Then, too, her rig is a little different from what we have around here. Looked like a Southern boat."
"Have you your boat handy?"
"Yes, she's right at the end of this street. Do you want me to follow up that crowd?"
"Could your boat catch the Flyaway, do you think?"
"My boat, the Searchlight, is as good a yacht as there is anywhere around, if I do say it myself," answered Martin Harris promptly. "If you don't believe it, try her and see."
"We will try her," came promptly from Dick. "And the sooner you begin the chase the better it will suit me."
"All right; we'll start as soon as I've swallowed this coffee," answered the skipper of the Searchlight. "But, hold on, this may prove a long search."
"Do you want to make terms?"
"I wasn't thinking of that. I'll leave it to you as to what the job is worth, after we're done. I was thinking that I haven't any provender aboard my yacht, if we want to stay out any length of time."
"I'll fix that," answered Dick. "Come, Sam. You say the yacht is at the foot of the street?"
"Yes."
"We'll be there in less than five minutes."
"Where are you going — to buy provisions?"
"Yes."
Dick made off, followed not only by Sam, but likewise by Tom. He found a large grocery close at hand, and here purchased some coffee, sugar, canned meat and fish, a small quantity of vegetables, and also several loaves of bread and some salt. To this Tom added a box of crackers and Sam some cake and fruit, and with their arms loaded down they hurried to the Searchlight.
Martin Harris was on hand and ready to cast off. "Hullo, you did lay in some things!" he grinned. "I reckon you calculate this chase to last some time."
"We've got enough for several days, anyway — that is, all but water," returned Dick.
"I've got a whole barrel full of that forward, lad."
"Then we are ready to leave. I hope, though, we run the Flyaway down before noon," concluded the elder Rover, as he hopped on board.
Leaving Sam to stow away the stores as he saw fit, Dick and Tom sprang in to assist Martin Harris, and soon the mainsail and jib were set, and they turned away from the dock and began the journey down the Hudson. As soon as they were clear of the other boats, the skipper set his topsail and flying jib, and they bowled along at a merry gait, the wind being very nearly in their favor and neither too strong nor too slack.
"Now I'd like to hear the particulars of this case," remarked Martin Harris, as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at the tiller. "You see, I want to know just what I am doing. I don't want to get into any trouble with the law."
"You won't get into any trouble. Nobody has a right to run off with a girl against her will," replied Dick.
"That's true. But why are they running off with her?"
"I think they have been hired to do it by a man who wants to marry the girl's mother," went on Dick, and related the particulars of what had occurred.
Martin Harris was deeply interested. "I reckon you have the best end of it," he said, when the youth had finished. "And you say this Dan Baxter is a son of the rascal who is suspected of robbing Rush & Wilder?"
"Yes."
"Evidently a hard crowd."
"You are right — and they ought all of them to be in prison," observed Tom. "By the way, have they heard anything of those robbers?"
"The detectives are following up one or two clews. One report was that this Baxter and Girk had gone to some place on Staten Island. But I don't think they know for certain."
CHAPTER XVII
IN WHICH DORA IS CARRIED OFF
Perhaps it will be as well to go back a bit and learn how poor Dora was enticed into leaving home so unexpectedly, to the sorrow of her mother and the anxiety of Dick and her other friends.
Dora was hard at work sweeping out the parlor of the Stanhope cottage when she saw from the window a boy walking up the garden path. The youth was a stranger to her and carried a letter in his hand.
"Is this Mrs. Stanhope's place?" he questioned, as Dora appeared.
"Yes."
"Here's a letter for Miss Dora Stanhope," and he held out the missive.
"Whom is it from?"
"I don't know. A boy down by the lake gave it to me," was the answer, and without further words the lad hurried off, having received instructions that he must not tarry around the place after the delivery of the communication.
Tearing open the letter Dora read it with deep interest.
"What can Dick have to tell me?" she mused. "Can it be something about Mr. Crabtree? It must be."
Dropping her work, she ran upstairs, changed her dress, put on her hat, and started for the boathouse.
It took her but a short while to reach the place, but to her surprise nobody was in sight.
"Can I have made some mistake?" she murmured; when the Falcon hove into view from around a bend in the shore line.
"Is that Miss Stanhope?" shouted a strange man, who seemed to be the sole occupant of the craft.
"Yes, I am Dora Stanhope," answered the girl.
"Dick Rover sent me over from the other side of the lake. He told me if I saw you to take you over to Nelson Point."
Nelson Point was a grove situated directly opposite Cedarville. It was a place much used by excursionists and picnic parties.
"Thank you," said Dora, never suspecting that anything was wrong. "If you'll come in a little closer I will go with you."
The Falcon was brought in, and Dora leaped on board of the yacht.
She had scarcely done so when Mumps and Dan Baxter stepped from the cabin.
"Oh, dear!" she gasped. "Where — where did you come from?"
"Didn't quite expect