Dick was thoroughly splashed, and with two against one, was soon forced to holler quits.
“Tell you what I’m going to do; I’m going to swim up to that place and back, anyway. You fellows can come or not, as you please,” and with a long, sweeping, underhand stroke, his head almost buried in the water, Dick sped away. The remaining two contented themselves with paddling about and noting the clearness of the water and the fine sandy bottom. They got a stone and amused themselves by throwing it some distance and then swimming under water after it and recovering it. They had been doing this for some moments, when suddenly Garry, thinking that Dick, with his speed, had been gone long enough to have done that distance twice over, began to worry a bit, and called Phil’s attention to the lapse of time. They decided to swim up there and seek their missing comrade, who, although they had perfect faith in his prowess as a swimmer, might easily have been overtaken with a cramp, and met with disaster.
It was generally a rule that they keep an eye on each other in the water, and it was a strict regulation that a call for help be never made in jest.
“Let’s go,” called Garry, and away they started. They had made less than fifty yards, when borne on the breeze came the sound of Dick’s voice.
Garry stopped swimming for a moment, and began to tread water, while he looked toward the spot that had been Dick’s goal when he swam away. Dick could be seen standing on the bank beckoning wildly to them.
CHAPTER XI
A LUCKY FIND
“Guess it’s nothing serious, Garry,” said Phil, who had followed Garry’s lead and stopped swimming long enough to see what the cause of the call was. “It looks as though he had made a discovery of some sort.”
The chums put on an extra burst of speed, and soon had reached the spot where Dick was standing.
“What’s all the commotion about?” inquired Garry half breathlessly, as they clambered up on to the bank. “We thought you were calling for help.”
“I am truly sorry I frightened you, but I just found something that we may need before our stay at the camp is done,” and Dick led the way into the woods for a few feet. “I got out on the bank to rest a bit, and thought I saw signs of a camp having been here at one time or another, so I nosed around and tucked away in the brush I found this,” and displacing some of the debris that had fallen around the object, Dick disclosed a birch-bark canoe, made after Indian fashion.