“Let’s look around and see what we’ll do,” slowly said Frank. “I think the best thing is for you two fellows,” indicating Paul and Ralph, “to remain here and watch the boat. Lanky and I will scout around to find some gas. We’ve got to do it quickly, too.”
“Tell you, Frank!” Lanky was spurred into action. “Let’s hunt in these boats and see what we can find. You go one way and I’ll go the other. If you find it, whistle, and I’ll do the same.”
“Yes,” drawled Frank, thinking the while. “Look, Lanky. If you find a can of gas in one of the boats, or any way to get some, try to leave the owner a note telling him who we are so that we shan’t be stealing. Hear? Got a pencil and paper? Write the owner a note and tell where he can find us.”
Lanky Wallace started in one direction along the boat landing and Frank in the other.
As Frank came to the first of the several boats which were tied there, he looked through the gloom to see if there might be a can of gasoline aboard, carried as an extra for the sake of precaution.
The first boat was not so provided, nor was the second, and he wondered if Lanky were having the same sort of luck along his part of the wharf.
“But,” thought Frank, “its the law of averages, as the salesmen all say. That means that if we look into enough boats, provided there are enough boats tied up there, we’ll find a can of gas, or maybe a gas-tank filled that we can get at.”
He had looked in three boats and had come to the end of the string. Through the darkness he tried to discern more of them tied to the landing. Stooping low, in order to peer on a level with the wharf, and aiming his gaze out over the water, he tried hard to see at least one more boat.
Faintly, hazily through the gloom, he thought he saw one other craft moving up and down on the stream, with its nose to the landing.
“That’s the law of averages,” he smiled to himself at his own humor. But, deep down in Frank’s heart was a feeling akin to despair, though it could not be called that properly. He was not despairing, but hope was having a struggle to reach out far enough to grasp at the very small straws which were floating his way.