"Why no. You see Bob, he wasn't around; so, because I didn't want to have my long walk all for nothin', I just hunted up the paddle in his woodshed, and started for our house. I'd a made it, too, if I hadn't leaned too far over when a rock bumped into us, and the old thing just pitched me out."
"Well," said Fred, laughingly, "suppose you jump around a little, and dry off before you go home, Billy. And neither of us will let on what happened. I'll get the canoe down to your house in some fashion, though I hope Buck will be away this morning."
"He's gone off with some of the fellers to Grafton, to look at somethin' they want to buy," the small chap continued; "and he won't be back till noon. That's just why I thought I'd help get his boat down the river. You see Bob's with him, I guess."
So after they had seen Billy scamper away, keeping in the warm sun so as to get his clothes dried, and avoiding the road so that he might not meet inquisitive people who would wonder how he came to be so wet, Fred and Bristles together entered the canoe, the latter having recovered his shoes and coat.
They recovered the paddle and Fred pushed off, and went quietly along down the river until finally he was able to bring the craft to the shore at the place where Buck generally kept it housed in a small shanty he had built.
They tied it up, and sauntered away. By this time their clothes had dried fairly well.
They were just leaving the vicinity of the boat house where Buck kept the canoe, when Bristles caught sight of a boy staring hard at them from a little distance along the river bank.
"After all, Fred, I reckon that we'll hear something drop about this little matter," he declared; "because, you see, there's Sam Jinks watching us with his eyes just popping half out of his head. He wonders what we've been doing with Buck's canoe, because he knows right well we never borrowed it. And make up your mind Sam'll tell him all about it the first chance he gets, because he wants to get in with that bunch."
"All right," replied Fred, with a shrug of his shoulders; "I don't see where we've got any reason to worry about it. Just say we found the boat drifting on the current of the river, which is the truth, Bristles. Buck can carry on any way he likes; we won't give him any satisfaction. And now, let's get back to what we were talking about when all this rumpus came along; the chances for a boat club in Riverport."