“Gosh!”
After that last exclamation Bumpus remained silent, but he certainly found plenty of food for thought in what he had heard Thad say. Every new lurch of the boat was apt to give him a fresh quiver of anxiety. He kept his eyes fixed on Thad, just as though he believed that if they were to be saved at all, it must inevitably be through the instrumentality of the patrol leader.
It might readily be assumed that none of those eight scouts would ever forget that wild voyage down the flooded Susquehanna, in the inky darkness of that Spring night. The floating shanty boat kept performing all manner of remarkable gyrations under the influence of wind and waves. Sometimes one end would be upstream, and in a little while the craft would spin around so that the door had to be temporarily closed in order to keep the driving rain from deluging them.
In the midst of this dreadful suspense they suddenly felt that their onward motion had ceased. At the same time they discovered the forward part of the boat to be rising.
“We’re ashore!” shouted Giraffe, looking ready to plunge out of the door and take any sort of a ducking rather than stay aboard, to risk death in the flood.
“Hold on!” cried Thad, clutching him just in time to prevent any rashness; “you don’t want to leap before you look. There’s water on this side where the shore ought to be. I think the boat’s only shoved up on a sunken rock! If you jumped now you’d find yourself in the river!”
“Yes, and she’s swinging around right now, let me tell you, Giraffe!” added Davy Jones; “look at the other side coming up, would you?”
“Oh! I hope she don’t turn turtle, that’s all!” bellowed Bumpus; “keep the door open, Thad, and let me have a chance to get out if the worst comes, because I need more time than the rest of you do.”
Giraffe was seen to edge closer to the stout scout, as though he had made up his mind to give Bumpus, who knew so little about swimming, all possible assistance should the worst come to pass.
“No danger this time,” sang out Thad, “for there she slides off the rock, and our interrupted voyage is on again.”