“The note wasn’t touched,” said Ben. “I noticed that it was exactly as we left it.”
All gave a parting wave and pointed to the shore, and then left the hill. They made their way down to the cabin, and told the camp-worker what they had seen.
“It must be Lawrence,” said Jerry Blutt. “Maybe he’ll come over here, instead of waiting for us to go to him.”
“Gracious, I never thought of that!” cried Buster.
“We’ll be like the men in one of Shadow’s stories,” said Ben. “One was upstairs in a big 250 office building and one downstairs. The man upstairs went down, and the downstairs man went up, and they kept that up until both stopped, tired out, one upstairs and one down.” And the others had to smile at the brief yarn.
All journeyed to the lower shore of the island, where they could get a better view of the spot where the person they thought was Phil had been. They saw the party walking up the river bank, looking for a good place to ford. All shouted loudly and waved their hands to keep him where he was, and he nodded his head deeply, to show that he understand.
“It must be Phil,” said Dave. “Oh, how thankful I am that he wasn’t carried away by the flood!”
The boys were impatient to get back to the shore, and Jerry Blutt did not blame them. To carry any of the stuff over was still out of the question, and they did not attempt it.
“You can come and get it some day, Jerry,” said Buster. “You can ship it to us by express, and we’ll pay you for your trouble;” and so it was arranged.
It was as hard to gain the shore as it had been to reach the island, and all were well-nigh exhausted when they finally left the water, not to return again. Phil saw them coming, and when he made out Dave he was almost dumfounded. 251