Teddy, while looking sympathetic, thrust his muzzle into Alex’s, pocket looking for crackers.
“Je—rusalem!” exclaimed Alex. “I wish I had some, Teddy. I never was so empty in my life!”
After a short rest, the boy arose and the two proceeded on their difficult journey. Now and then they came to weedy fields where corn had been grown and where great shocks of stalks still stood, but for the most part their way lay through a narrow slice of forest which fringed the river. Alex took occasion, after a time, to investigate some of the corn shocks but found no ears.
“Pretty soon,” the boy mused, “I’ll be hungry enough to eat the stalks. And the boys must be hungry, too,” he went on, “but all the provisions we had are on board the Rambler. I don’t know what they’ll say to me when I go back and explain what happened.”
After a long, long walk, during which it seemed to the boy that he had covered at least a score of miles, he discerned on the opposite bank of the river the little cove in which the Rambler had been moored that morning. Although he strained his eyes hoping to see the familiar figures of his chums, he could see no motion whatever.
“I guess they’ve got starved out and gone away,” the boy complained. “I suppose when I get over there, there’ll be only a burned-out camp-fire and nothing to eat. The next time I go out fishing for catfish, I won’t go. It always brings bad luck.”
Realizing that he might have to swim across the whole width of the river, the boy kept on upstream knowing that it would be better to have the current in his favor when he entered the water.
While he sat looking across the stream, several river craft passed, some going up and some going down. Once he thought of calling to a small motor boat and asking the occupants to ferry him across the river. But he soon changed his mind not knowing what sort of people he would be likely to find in any of the river boats.
While the boy stood near the bank of the river looking out, Teddy, as usual, was nosing about looking for something to eat. The boy had hardly noticed the absence of the bear when a succession of long shrill squealings came from a thicket not far distant.
“There!” the boy mused, starting away on a run. “Teddy has gone and scared the life out of some one.”