Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island | Page 6

somewhere, after days or even weeks, ten, twenty, fifty, a
hundred miles down the river, a sodden, unrecognizable body would be
washed up on sand-bar or mud-bank. It was a sickening thought.
"Have all the river towns been telegraphed?" asked a bystander, of the
mayor. A nod of the head was his only answer.
"We may as well go home," was the final reluctant verdict. "We can
come back in the morning." Mr. Fulton alone refused to abandon the
search, and Mr. Aikens kindly offered to bear him company till
daybreak brought others to take his place. When all had gone save these
two and the three boys, Jerry approached and tried to draw Mr. Aikens
aside.
"Do you suppose," he began with a kind of despairing eagerness, "that
he could have stayed in the boat?"
Aikens shook his head. "Not a chance in the world," he declared.
"But I thought----" began Jerry, to be interrupted by Mr. Aikens, who
finally contented himself with merely repeating:
"Not a chance in the world." They were silent until at last Mr. Aikens,
moved by some impulse of kindliness, for he could hardly help
guessing how miserable the boy's thoughts must be, added:
"You thought what, lad?"
"The boat was full of water, of course, but when she popped up, it
looked like there was something black in the bottom----"
"You saw the boat go over, didn't you! It must have turned over and
over a dozen times down there in that whirlpool, even if he had stayed
in till she lit. But he couldn't have. And even if----"
"Yes" urged Jerry, but without enthusiasm.
"If he was in the bottom of the boat he would have been drowned just

the same, knocked senseless as he probably was by the terrific force of
the fall and the tons of water plunging on top of him. Mind you, I don't
think there was one chance in a million but that he was dashed out long
before the boat hit bottom."
"But where's the--the body, then?" objected Jerry miserably.
"If grappling hooks and seines and dynamite couldn't answer that
question, don't expect me to. Look here, lad, I know you feel all cut up
over it, but think of how his poor father feels----"
"I am--that's what makes me feel as if it was partly my fault."
"Now--now--don't take it like that. Man and boy I've lived on this and
other rivers a good many years over forty, and a drowning I've known
for every one of those years. The water's a treacherous dame-- she
smiles at you in the sunshine, and the little waves kiss each other and
play around your boat, but the shadows lurk deep and they're waiting,
waiting, I tell you. The old river takes her toll. It happened to be your
friend, that's all. But it wasn't anybody's fault. Mr. Fulton would be the
last one in the world to think so."
Jerry looked over at Mr. Fulton, who had finally ended his mute pacing
up and down, and now sat, chin in hand, staring out across the water. A
sudden impulse made the boy go over and stand for awhile, silent,
beside the grief-stricken man. He wanted to say something, but the
words would not come. So, after a little, he walked upstream to where
Dave and Frank huddled against an overturned boat; the night was
growing a bit chill.
"Moon's coming up," remarked Frank as Jerry settled down beside
them. No one answered.
"It's awful to sit around and not move a finger to find him," shivered
Dave at last. "Seems as if there ought to be something we could do."
"Do you know what I think?" replied Jerry, almost eagerly. "I think I
was right about that boat. I've been trying to remember what we left in

the boat that could have looked like--like what I saw when she came up.
There wasn't a thing in the boat--not a thing. It was Tod I saw--I know
it was!"
"But he never could have stayed in," objected Frank.
"That's what Mr. Aikens said--and everybody else. But tell me what
else it could have been I saw. I saw _some_thing, that I know."
"We ought to have gone after the boat," admitted Dave, slowly. "We
didn't do a bit of good here, that's sure."
"But we didn't know that at the time," Frank argued. "Everybody'd have
blamed us if we'd gone on a wild goose chase down the river after an
empty boat----"
"But nobody would have said a word if we'd found him in the bottom
of a boat everybody else thought was empty. If the moon was only
higher----"
"You don't catch me drilling off down Plum Bun at night, moon or no
moon. There's a rattlesnake or copperhead