stairway that led up on deck.

Bert tried to look brave, and as though he did not care. Nan moved a
little closer to her mother. As for Flossie, she, too, was a little
frightened, but Freddie did not seem at all alarmed.

"Is it somebody come to take the boat away from us?" he asked in his
high-pitched, childish voice. "If it is--don't let 'em, papa."

They all laughed at this--even Mr. Bobbsey, and he turned to look
around, half way up the stairs, saying:

"No, Freddie, I won't let them take our boat."

"Pooh! Just as if they could--it's ours!" spoke Bert.

"Who could it be on board here, mamma?" asked Nan.

"I don't know, dear, unless it was some one passing through the lumber
yard, who stopped to see what the boat looked like," answered Mrs.
Bobbsey. "Papa will soon find out."

The noise they had heard was the footsteps of some one walking about
on the deck of the houseboat.

"Perhaps it was one of the men from the office, who came to tell papa
he was wanted up there, or that some one wanted to speak to him on the
telephone," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. She saw that the children, even
Bert, were a little alarmed, for the boat was tied at a lonely place
in the lumber yard, and tramps frequently had to be driven away from