"Down he tumbled on the raft, his pole falling into the water." Page 16
"Oh dear!" shrieked Dick. "What a set! There goes that oar! Reach after it, Dab!"
Dab already was beating the water furiously with his pole in his efforts to reach that "oar" now adrift. It was all in vain. The conspiracy to take them all to sea and there let them spend the chilly night had spread to the very equipments of the Great Emperor.
"Catch me on a raft ag'in!" whimpered John Richards.
"Catch me on one with you!" replied Dick fiercely. "Might have got that boy if you had pulled, and now those other folks have got him."
"'Those other folks' are coming after us!" observed Dab Richards.
"Oh dear!" groaned the humiliated Dick. "Make believe pull up river."
"I won't!" said John Richards.
"Pull so that they may think that we don't need them. Now!" urged Dick.