The Pony Rider Boys on the Blue Ridge; or, A Lucky Find in the Carolina Mountains

by Frank Gee Patchin

"A mile?"

"Yassir."

"Two miles?"

"Yassir."

"You see, Professor," spoke up Tad with a shrug of the shoulders. "We can expect no help from Chops. We've got to trust to our own judgment."

The Professor nodded reflectively.

"Why do you prefer to go down rather than upstream?" he asked.

"For the reason that we shall meet higher water up there, and besides this we shall be beating against the flood instead of going with it. You will find the going easier downstream than the other way."

"I am inclined to think you are right. But the difficulty is that we don't know what we are going to meet that way now."

"We shall have to take our chances, that's all. And the sooner we get started the better. We'll be swept off from this camp ground pretty soon. You see how rapidly the water is rising?" reminded Butler.