King seized the life preserver and headed for the shore, while the boy devoted his energies to getting Teddy on board and running the boat at full speed down the river without hitting any of the shoal places shown by the ripples to be dangerous. In a very short time he came to the sand island where Clay and Case were.
He threw down the anchor, just below, and stood on the prow making faces at his chums until they threatened to maroon him the first chance they got! Captain Joe was now making a great clamor with his chain and Alex released him. The dog was instantly in the water, swimming to the boys, now wading out toward the Rambler.
“You’ll have to swim!” Alex shouted, in a moment. “I can’t come any closer to you, and we’ve lost the rowboat, as you know!”
“We can’t get any wetter than we did swimming over to the island,” Clay grumbled. “Where is that deputy from Phoenix?”
“Making for the shore!” laughed Alex. “Teddy Bear dumped him into the river and I sent him off with a life preserver.”
“I’d like to have sent him off with a sore head!” Case muttered, as he climbed up on the deck, his teeth chattering. “He sneaked on board from a passing boat and got the drop on us or we wouldn’t be here!”
“He thought he was in the line of duty,” Clay put in, “but it was rather tough on us. We never saw him until he had us covered!” Did he find anything he wanted on board?”
“Not a thing!” Alex replied. “All he got was a bath!”
“I’m going to buy a ton of honey and present it to Teddy, with a set of appreciative resolutions!” Clay declared, as he followed Case to the deck. “There never was a bear that had such sense!”
The sun came out hot and red, and the boys kept under the shelter of the cabin as much as possible that day, still they kept the motor boat running at good speed. They talked over the loss of the money many times but were unable to reach any logical solution of the puzzle.