“Do you know,” he said, “those fellows never went down the river at all. They dropped down under the bend and landed. If we don’t get off this sand bar this afternoon, we’ll have to sit up all night waiting for trouble.”
“Then we’ll get off this afternoon,” Case observed. “I’m so constituted that I have to have my sleep regularly.”
“Keep me awake nights if you want to,” laughed Alex, “but don’t let me go hungry! I was reared a pet and can’t stand it.”
There were now various crafts in sight on the river, but none came near the bar. Signals made by the boys met with no response.
“They are a suspicious lot of fellows,” Clay decided.
After several vessels had passed without paying any attention to the shouts and signals of the boys, they gave up trying to secure immediate assistance and devoted themselves to the preparation of dinner—to the great joy of Captain and the eminent disgust of Teddy, the cub, who had certainly eaten too much honey.
The cabin was indeed in bad shape, standing at an angle of about thirty degrees. Many of the dishes were broken, and some of the food which had been cooked in the morning lay in a messy heap on the floor.
However, the boys managed to boil coffee and cook eggs, and so, with bread and butter and canned food, they made a very good meal.
“Now, what are we going to do?” asked Jule. “We can never get this boat off alone, and the vessels on the river won’t help us.”
“I wonder if the tide doesn’t come up here?” asked Clay.