"What's that?" cried Mollie.

"Some one is in there!" added Grace, clinging to Amy.

Again a groan, and some suppressed laughter.

"There are stowaways aboard!" cried Betty. "Girls, we must put ashore
at once and get an officer!" and she shifted the wheel.

CHAPTER VIII

A HINT OF GHOSTS

"Who can they be?"

"It sounds like more than one!"

"Anyhow, they can't get out!" It was Betty who said this last, Grace
and Mollie having made the foregoing remarks. And Betty had no sooner
detected the presence on the Gem of stowaways than she had pulled shut
the sliding door leading into the trunk cabin, and had slid the hatch
cover forward, fastening both with the hasps.

"They'll stay there until we get an officer," she explained. "Probably
they are tramps!"

"Oh, Betty!" It was a startled trio who cried thus.

"Well, maybe only boys," admitted the Little Captain, as a concession.
"They may have come aboard, intending to go off for a ride in my boat,