"That's what Mr. Aikens said—and everybody else. But tell me what else it could have been I saw. I saw _some_thing, that I know."
"We ought to have gone after the boat," admitted Dave, slowly. "We didn't do a bit of good here, that's sure."
"But we didn't know that at the time," Frank argued. "Everybody'd have blamed us if we'd gone on a wild goose chase down the river after an empty boat——"
"But nobody would have said a word if we'd found him in the bottom of a boat everybody else thought was empty. If the moon was only higher——"
"You don't catch me drilling off down Plum Bun at night, moon or no moon. There's a rattlesnake or copperhead for every hundred yards!" It was Frank who took up Jerry's thought. "Besides, it would be different if we hadn't waited so long. Tod—Tod's—he's dead now," voicing at last the feeling they had never before put into words.
There was a gruffness in Jerry's voice as he answered, a gruffness that tried hard to mask the trembling of his tones. "I know it, but—but—I want to do something for Mr. Fulton. Won't you fellows go along with me? I guess I—I'll go."
"Down river?" asked both boys, but without eagerness.
"Till we find the boat."
"It's no use," said Frank. "Our folks'll cane us now when we get home.
Going along, Dave—with me?"
"How far do you s'pose the boat's drifted by now, Jerry?" asked Dave instead of answering Frank.