"I guess Joe came back, all right," admitted Fred. "All I have to say is that it was a mean trick."
But that did not help solve the problem of how to replace the borrowed section of fence.
The boys waded in and brought the bits of floating wood ashore, but Joe, if he had chopped it, had been thorough and any hope of salvage was seen to be hopeless.
"Well, we might as well go home," Fred said at last. "The folks will be coming back."
Rather disconsolately they trailed up to the cottage and Artie's guilty conscience gave him a distinct shock when he saw a strange man sitting on the porch steps.
"I—I guess I'll walk out to the bus line and meet the folks," he murmured, hanging back.
"In your bathing suit, I suppose," Fred countered sarcastically. "You come along—he can't arrest you for knocking down a piece of fence."
Artie did not feel at all sure on this point, but he dragged himself up to the steps and managed a weak smile in response to the broad grin with which the stranger greeted them.
"I thought every one was drowned, perhaps," said the man, pointing over his shoulder to the array of garments swinging on the line. "Where's your ma?"