"It must be Jones," cried Shirley. "Be ready to jump the minute we run aground, Mabel."

Mabel signified that she understood, and gathering up her skirts, she stood up in the prow of the launch.

A moment later the little craft grounded with a shock. Mabel leaped lightly ash.o.r.e, and turned to lend Shirley a hand. But this was unnecessary, for the moment she realized the boat had struck bottom, Shirley dropped the oars and also sprang ash.o.r.e.

Quickly she grasped her friend by the hand.

"Run!" she cried, and suited the action to the word.

Swiftly the two girls sped over the uneven ground toward shelter of a dense clump of trees not far away. And they disappeared among these just as the second launch grounded and several figures leaped ash.o.r.e.

The first of the pursuers caught a glimpse of the two figures disappearing in the woods, and immediately gave chase. The others followed him.

Hearing pursuing footsteps, the girls redoubled their efforts and were soon, they believed, safe from pursuit. They sat down quickly, to take a much-needed rest.

There came the sound of footsteps crashing through the underbrush.

Shirley glanced about.

"Up in this tree, quick, Mabel," she exclaimed

She lent her friend a hand, and a minute later they were high up among the branches, where they could peer down without being seen. And at that moment a voice called out:

"Shirley! Mabel!"

"My gracious!" exclaimed Mabel. "It's Leonard."

The girls looked at each other somewhat sheepishly.

CHAPTER XXII.-SAFE.

"Shirley! Mabel!" came Leonard's voice again.

"Here we are, Leonard," shouted Mabel.

There was a moment's silence, and then the footsteps came nearer and Leonard halted directly under the tree in which the two girls clung.

"Where?" he shouted.

"Right up here," replied Mabel, with a giggle.

This time Leonard placed the sound of Mabel's voice. He glanced up. Far above the ground he could just make out what he knew must be the two girls.

"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing up there?"

"Trying to get away from Jones," replied Mabel.

"Well, you are safe enough now. Come down."

"All right," said both girls at once.

While Leonard turned back to hail the other searchers, the two girls slipped from the tree. Leonard seized the hand of each.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "you gave us an awful scare. If it hadn't been for d.i.c.k, there is no telling when we might have found you."

"What did d.i.c.k do?" asked Shirley eagerly.

"Why, he saved us a futile search in the woods. He figured that it was you who had taken the _Sybil_ and it was upon his suggestion that we came up stream again."

"And did you capture Jones?" demanded Mabel.

"Yes; but he got away again."

"And Jimmy?" asked Shirley eagerly. "Is he safe?"

"Yes. He's around here some place looking for you."

"Then," said Mabel, slowly, "it must have been you we saw on the sh.o.r.e just as we escaped."

"It must have been," replied Leonard. "I thought I saw a dark shape going up the creek, but I wasn't sure, so I said nothing about it."

"And where did you get the other launch? We saw nothing of it when we left."

"We found it a mile down stream, about where we left it when we recaptured the _Sybil_."

"So that's the way it was," said Shirley, half to herself. "Had we only met you after we escaped we all would have been saved a lot of worry."

"But why didn't you stop when I hailed you in the creek?" asked Leonard, fatigue and anxiety beginning to tell on his nerves.

"We thought it was Jones coming after us," Mabel explained.

"I see," replied Leonard.

At that moment, d.i.c.k, Jimmy, Jenkins and the policemen came running up.

"Well, I see you have found them," said Jenkins.

He wiped beads of perspiration from his brow-for he had been running.

"I'm glad of it. I must get home at once, or my wife will have the entire police force on the lookout for me."

The others laughed.

"Well, that's what I get for being married," said Jenkins. "But come, hustle back into the launch and we'll hurry back to town."

"There is no gasoline in the _Sybil_," said Shirley.