Jane McCarthy nodded understandingly. Harriet was rowing, Jane sitting
in the stern of the boat.

"Watch the shore, Jane. I will do the rowing. I am going to tell you
what I discovered that day we first went aboard the houseboat. I put my
hand on the stove quite by accident that morning. The stove was so hot
that it burned my hand."

"You don't say?"

"Yes. Now explain how that stove happened to be hot," continued Harriet.

"That's easy. Somebody had had a fire in it," nodded Jane.

"Exactly. And not long before we went aboard. Then there were bread
crumbs on the floor. Jane, some person had been living on that boat. You
remember how anxious Dee Dickinson was that we should not go to the boat
until he had first been there?"

"Yes, but what has that to do with the cutting of the rope, last night,
and losing the boat?"

"I don't know. That the two puzzles have some connection I am positive.
What we wish most, just now, is to find the 'Red Rover.'"

"There's something red on the shore; it looks like a fire!" cried Jane,
pointing excitedly. "Oh, if it should be the boat."

Harriet ceased rowing and quickly turned her head over her right
shoulder. She gazed, at first half startled, then uttered a cry of