After breakfast they sat down to take counsel among themselves while Sam scraped the dishes then threw them in the lake to be washed by the lake itself.

They decided that either Larry or Sam must have fallen asleep, and that at a time when the girls had moved from their anchorage.
Both lads protested that nothing of the kind had happened.

Sam stuck to his story that the anchor light had faded away and that the "Red Rover" had disappeared all in the same moment.
"What are we going to do about it ?" questioned Larry Goheen.
"We are going to take up a collection for that camera, and then we are going to find them," answered Billy.
"We are going to try, you mean," answered George with a mirthless smile.
"We have tried before--and failed, and now we are obliged to confess that we are beaten for good and all.

However let us reason this thing out.

The 'Red Rover' couldn't have disappeared, it could have gone only by being towed away.