CHAPTER VI
THE END OF THE LABYRINTH
But a disappointment awaited them in the morning. The craft that had brought them this far was quite beyond repair. It would perhaps not have been impossible to patch it up if they had had the necessary tools, but, lacking them, the boat was a total wreck.
“What can we do?” said Bob, his tone showing his dismay. “Seems like we are in a bad fix. ‘No boat, no can go!’ as the Chinaman says.”
Jerry, however, was not so pessimistic. “Oh, I’m not beaten yet. I think I’ve got a scheme that’ll work, although it means we won’t be dry again until we get out of the canyon.”
“What do you mean? Are we going to swim the rest of the way?”
“You’re not far off,” said Jerry, laughing. “But even if we’ve got to swim we won’t have to carry all our junk. Have you thought what a bully raft our air mattress will make?”
“Gee whiz, that’s some idea,” said Bob. “We can load our stuff on it and let it float down stream, can’t we?”
“You bet! But it will be pretty rough going. We’ll have to nurse it pretty carefully. A submarine rock could torpedo it in a minute. But come on, let’s try it.”