“Oh, where can the others be?” cried Ruth, grasping at the canoe in despair, and looking wildly about for help. But she saw no signs of the other girls; the Water-Witch had evidently been progressing more slowly than they had either of them realized.
With a desperate effort, they finally managed to turn the canoe about, and pushing it before them, they swam for the shore, which was close by. The water-proof bags containing rain-coats, blankets, and supplies were scattered in all directions, headed down stream.
“Lil, we’ve got to get our stuff—or it will sink so that we can’t find it!”
“Oh! Oh! What shall we do!” wailed Lily, now able to speak. “Marj! Marj!” she screamed helplessly.
In a second two or three scouts appeared about fifty yards down stream, on the bank. They had already landed their canoes when they heard the cry of distress. But in an incredibly short time Marjorie had pushed hers in to the water again, and was paddling madly against the current towards the scene of the accident. Seeing, however, when she reached them, that Lily was perfectly safe, and with Ruth, capable of managing the capsized canoe, she turned about and rescued the bags of luggage.
By this time the rest of the party had run along the shore, reaching the scene just as Lily, with drenched clothing and streaming hair, climbed out of the water. Meanwhile Marjorie continued to fish for the lost articles.
“We’re safe now. Pull her up, Lil!” called Ruth. “Hello, everybody! Weren’t we crazy, though?”
“It’s a swift part of the stream, and there are lots of sharp rocks,” explained Miss Phillips, after the scouts had pulled the canoe upon the bank and dumped out the water. “It is near here where we make our portage.”
“Oh, no wonder! Well, Marj—” Ruth watched the other girl direct her canoe to the shore—“did you find everything?”
“I saw something or other sink to a watery grave,” replied Marjorie; “and maybe I missed one or two little things. But I guess I got most everything.”