“Why, the old river’s standing still, I do declare!” cried the astonished Bumpus, as he thrust his head out of the open doorway to see.
“It looks that way because we’re moving along with it, Bumpus,” Giraffe told him; ordinarily the tall scout would most likely have jeered scornfully at the innocent for suspecting such a thing, but now he seemed to feel that he owed Bumpus a debt on account of the trick he had played, which could only be paid by his being unusually kind.
“Can we do anything, Thad?” demanded Step Hen. “Is there a push pole on board so some of us might start the old tub back to the bank again?”
“There is one, but it seems to be broken, and wouldn’t be worth a continental cent in all this flood,” Thad told him. “Unless we feel desperate enough to jump over and try to swim for it, we’ll have to stay aboard, and take our chances.”
“Oh! I hope now you won’t decide to try that!” said Bumpus, whose failings were well known to his chums, and a lack of the knowledge pertaining to the art of swimming happened to be one of them.
Indeed, when they looked at that terrible water all of the scouts shrank back, and not a single voice was raised in favor of the plan. There might be worse things even than finding themselves adrift on the flood in a houseboat.
“Do you think that thick rope broke under the strain, Thad?” asked Allan presently, as they still stood there, looking out, not liking to close the door lest something terrible happen to the boat, and all of them be caught in the cabin to drown like rats in a trap.
“That’s what must have happened, Allan, though when I looked it over I thought it could stand any sort of strain. But it must have been part rotten in some part; and a rope’s like a chain, you know, only as strong as its weakest link or strand. But no matter what the cause may have been, all we have to think of is the effect. It’s too late to prevent the accident; and we’ll hope the worst isn’t going to happen to us now.”
“What d’ye mean by the worst, Thad?” asked Bumpus, almost piteously.
“This river, you know, is full of rocks,” explained the other. “In the summertime when the water’s low they stick up everywhere; but in case of a flood most of them are under water, and act like snags to punch holes in boats that may be unlucky enough to be caught afloat. Then again there’s always danger of being crowded up on a sliding shelf of rock, when the wind and the sweep of the current might upset us all!”