“We’ll hope not,” returned the doctor; “but we’ll follow that up after we’ve tried everything else.”
The timber they now proceeded to search consisted principally of spruce, pines and cottonwood growing on a slope that ascended with the bed of the stream. The soil was fairly good here, being comparatively free from small stones and gravel, but there were numerous large bowlders and rocky projections that the search-party had to climb over or around.
They spent an hour and a half, walking, crawling and climbing over this difficult ground, flashing their lanterns into every hole or depression, and stopping every now and then to call Hal’s name. At last, considerably disheartened, they returned to the bank of the river below the falls.
“Let’s go down to the rapids and work up,” suggested Mr. Porter. “He was working that way most of the time I think. I saw him down there and didn’t see him up here.”
This proposal was agreed upon, so they walked down stream two hundred yards from the largest and lowest fall and began to work up. Two of the men held the lanterns, while the others thrust the long-handled rakes into the water and felt along the bank.
They pushed the rakes out as far as they could and drew them in many times. On several occasions they were almost certain they had found the body of the missing boy, but their discovery proved to be only a log or a tangled mass of sticks and weeds. Finally they worked up to the lower waterfall and then moved away from the roaring noise to a distance where they could hear each other talk.
“The only thing that seems to be left to do is to go to the other side and rake the river bed over there,” remarked Mr. Frankland.
“Yes, and if he was drowned even on that side, it’ll be just our luck not to find him,” said Mr. Porter. “The body’s probably drifted into midstream and may be down past the rapids.”
“If we don’t find him to-night, we’ll come back again to-morrow and drag the river to its junction with Lake River,” the doctor announced determinedly.
“There’s something funny about them falls,” remarked Pepper, who had been strangely silent during the whole of the search thus far.