There was a little window at one end of the scow, but it was too small to escape by. Ralph was compelled to accept the situation, at least until daylight. He tried to sleep, and at dawn looked out from the window.
“I will simply have to wait here until some one passes by,” he told himself. “In the meantime, though, Slump and Bemis may return. Can I reach the rope holding the scow to the shore?”
This was secured around a tree stump. Ralph reached with his pocket knife through the window, and began cutting at the scow end of the rope, which ran just above it.
In a few minutes the strands gave way and the scow floated down the creek.
CHAPTER XXI
A FRIEND IN NEED
There was a sluggish current to the creek and as soon as the scow got into midstream, it proceeded steadily on its voyage.