“Anyhow, it’ll be easy enough going back again!” Davy declared, “because we’ve left a fair trail behind us. I wouldn’t be surprised now if some of the other fellows take advantage of that to cross over here, so’s to get a squint of the river.” “Well, here we are, and it looks as if we might get a fairly decent look down stream, Davy.”
“Yes, there’s a little point sticking out here, thank goodness. Look at all the water going past, would you, Thad? This is a great flood, all right; and I hope it goes down a lot before we try to cross over to the mainland, to-morrow, or the day after. Do you think it’s come to a stand yet?”
“I guess you’ll find it that way,” returned the other; “and while we’re here I mean to make a mark, so as to tell just before dark what’s happening. But Davy, can you see anything like a boat down below?”
Davy shook his head, for he had been earnestly gazing in that direction.
“Not a single sign, Thad!” he declared, in a disappointed tone. “And as a boat couldn’t have passed from sight in this short time, why, that proves there wasn’t such a thing at all.”
“Looks that way,” assented the patrol leader confidently.
“And,” continued Davy, “that if I did really hear a shout, which of course hasn’t yet been proved for certain, then there’s somebody on this island besides our crowd!”
“We’ll have to let it go at that,” Thad told him. They looked about for a short time, and Thad arranged a stick at the edge of the river, that stood where the current would not displace it. By means of this he could tell whether the water rose or fell, since he had cut a groove in it to mark the present height of the flood.
“There, that ought to do the business for us,” Thad remarked, after he had finished his little job.
“Do we go back to the camp now?” Davy wanted to know, as though a little fearful that the other might propose a trip around the island, which, on account of the dense thickets of brush, he would not altogether fancy, though not the kind of a scout to easily back down.