In a moment they were all in the water.
"Come on! Follow your leader!" shouted Tom Reade, striking out lustily upstream.
"Come back and give us a handicap!" roared Dave. "How do you expect us to catch you when you get the lead over us with your long legs and arms?"
But Tom dived under water, swimming there. The others followed suit, each remaining under as long as possible, for, in this "stunt," there was no way of knowing when the leader came up. Tom remained under less than fifteen seconds. Then, showing his head, and with rapid overhand strokes he made for the nearer bank, slipping ashore and hiding behind some bushes.
It was Hazy who had to come up first after Tom.
"Whew! Tom must have met someone he knows on the bottom," called
Harry, as Greg's head rose above the surface.
Dave came up next, then Dick, and then Dan.
"Tom ought to be a fish!" uttered Darrin admiringly. "I stayed under water as long as I could."
Yet after going a few yards further up stream Dick Prescott turned, gazing anxiously down stream.
"Fellows," he suggested, "something must have happened to old Tom."