“Certainly am,” was the laconic reply. “See for yourself, if you don’t believe it. Gee, but it’s rotten luck, just at a time like this!” and Frank gritted his teeth and heaved a long sigh.
The momentum of the Rocket at the time the engine stopped, when Frank quickly threw it out of gear, was great enough to carry it quite a distance against the stream’s current.
“Wasn’t that an island over there?” came the question from Frank as he recalled what had been said by Lanky only a few moments before. “Here, Lanky, grab the oar and paddle awhile, and I’ll turn toward that island and drift back. The current will take us down stream, and we ought to land at the island, provided I can get far enough over to that side.”
Already Frank was turning the Rocket to the opposite side, trying to get in line with the island, above it, so that he might drift back to the boat landings which he remembered were on the upstream side, for this place had for a long time been a summer resort island.
Lanky grasped the oar, as he had been bidden, and began using it to good effect, aiding the Rocket to make through the current as it began to turn down the river. The trick was to hold it upstream as much as possible while Frank maneuvered at the wheel to get across.
He reached for the searchlight, turned it toward the island, the long beam of light seeking here and there to find the landing. Then, suddenly, it went out!
Lanky Wallace quickly pulled the oar from the water and started to fix the searchlight, when Frank called to him to stop, asking him to keep on paddling instead, as this was much more necessary than that the light should be fixed.
Ahead of him, since his eyes had become somewhat accustomed to the night-lights of the river, though darkness was prevailing, he could see the trees of the island and knew that a little more time would bring to his eyes the bulk of the landing.
The other boys, Paul and Ralph, were not conscious of any trouble, sleeping soundly on the small after deck.
It was a long guess on Frank’s part, yet, when analyzed, it was the only sensible thing to do, this attempt to land on the island. If there were other boats tied there, and it was altogether probable there would be, it should not be very difficult for them to obtain an amount of gasoline sufficient to take them back to Columbia. And, whether this should prove true or no, the landing at the island instead of drifting aimlessly down the stream would be by all odds the wisest thing to do.