"Then we will go downstream. Get ready, boys."
"We're ready," cried Ned.
"I'm not ready," answered Stacy. "I—I've got to tie my shoe. I—"
"Let him tie his shoe. He can follow along when he gets ready. We don't propose to stay here and drown," declared Ned.
"I'll lead the way with a lantern," announced Tad. "Chops, you ride up next to me. Ned, you follow along at the rear with a second lantern. In that way we shall be pretty well able to see what we are doing and what is going on along the line."
"An excellent idea," approved Professor Zepplin. "You have a wise head on your shoulders, Tad."
"But a wet one," laughed the Pony Rider Boy, mounting his pony and wading it cautiously into the rapidly moving water. "Come on there, Chops. Why are you hanging back?"
"Yassir," answered Billy Veal riding in after Tad with evident reluctance.
The water was up to the bellies of the ponies. The little animals put back their ears. They did not like the task before them. Chunky had trouble with his mount and for a moment it looked as though the fat boy would be dumped into the flood. After a brief battle, however, he managed to get his horse headed in the right direction.
For the first half hour the boys made their way along without great difficulty, though they could tell that the water was rising all the time. At first they had held their feet up, to keep them out of the water. But now they were riding with feet in stirrups, well down in the water. Their feet were already benumbed with the cold, the ponies were snorting, and the night seemed to be growing blacker with the moments.