Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island

her outline showed. Jerry rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but for only an instant. Then he sprang to the other side of the bridge, shedding hat, coat, trousers, shirt and shoes, on

good thirty feet to the water-and you

take any chances of losing her. Carry my clothes along the bank,

ad drifted under the bridge and now cut throug

the water with a clean sush! and bobbed up almost immediately, within three feet of the boa

was slow; the waterlogged craft lay in the river like so much cordwood. More than once Jerry had to stop for a few minutes' rest. B

re than the barest glance was needed to tell that there was no

after a long silence, "I gu

s me-do you notice how much water there is in the boat? It's a good ten inches from th

ight up to the top

d have taken the boat all these hours to float those few miles. Plum Run's got a six mile an hour

en snagged or shoaled up abov

as we were walking, and that being the case, she must have cleared

excited, Jerry

It was baled out, I tell you. And look at that rope-it was cut loos

n the world are you

n the back of my head. I didn't realize what it was that was going on in my cranium until I noticed th

in bewilderment. "Wha-what buck

arly swamped the boat? Tod said he'd bet we'd never be caught without a bailing

e worked loose and floated away. I don't s

off he'd try to bale her out, wouldn't he? He'd bale out just enough so she'd ride easy, and then he'd try to get to shore. Maybe he landed on Lost Island

think we'd better

matter wit

othing,

t going on home when I'm ru

had a hard day and been up all night-a

d, just forget it. I never was more in earnest in my life. Don'

know he was

earest thing to you, wouldn't you! And if you got hold of that boat-seat, for instance, you'd

know the boat tou

hen I see a sign that says 'No fishin

were out of your head. What'

. I'm going back up there and I'm going to swim across or get across and I'm going

ere's nothing the

right there as he has. The worst he can do is to kick us o

had no oars to row her back, they tied her by the short length of rope left, to a stout willow. Jerry res

ide of the river, and Dave, still unconvinced, stubbornly insisted on following the west bank, but Jerry soon cut short the argument by striding off in disgust. After a minute of uncertainty Dave tagged along behind. Neither spok

Davie finally, "let's s

ut pete

re daylight. If we can catch our friend on the island asleep it'll make things a lot

ed opposite Lost Island. There it lay, beyond the narrow stretch of steaming, misty black water, dark and forbidding. The

al, doesn't it?" remarked Dave as t

an't spring-and it

. How are we goi

t, if there's a pair of oars in that flat-boat I see yo

over in it. We better not stand here in the ope

we don't need to worry about runnin

ry? If the man came along and found his boa

kind as to bring back his boat. You can bet he isn

ts oozy bottom left no doubt that the boat had been used for that purpose. A pair of unbelievably heavy oars, cut from a sapli

stedly. "The boat'll never hold up th

fferent boat swept over the dam many weary miles up the river. "We'll each take an oar and try

ty push ended in a grunt. "Com

uld start her," Dave jibed. "I hope

-trunks we have for paddles. All together now!" as Dave bent over beside him

took up his half of the propelling mechanism. "Because when our craft took the

oat. It doesn't rhyme with anything but

-boat moved slowly out from shore. Inch by

in her," grunted Jerry, b

urned Dave. "I'll bet you nobo

rd the back of the boa

ps us

nt left; I'm saving it

Lift your oar out of water when you bring it back. The i

minds was the thought of their friend, who, in spite of the wild hope that Jerry had built u

oss, and they rested a brief spell, for ever

taking up his oar, "let's

e, although he still

don't want to lose any time. The sun

Right where we're headed,

ance toward Lost Island, now less than a hundr