Seizing hold of the boat, he sought to pull it to the water’s edge, but the task was too much for him. Gasping, he finally desisted, and at that moment Roy, Bug Eye and Pop Burns appeared.
“All right, boys!” Roy exclaimed. “In she goes—ho! Teddy, take the front! Grab this paddle! I’ll stay in the stern! Bug Eye, you and Pop keep those rifles loaded—we may need ’em!”
The canoe was in the water now, and swung about madly. The current was stronger than they had imagined.
“With luck, we’ll catch up to them soon!” Teddy panted. “If we can get close enough before they know we’re comin’—”
Roy did not reply, needing all his energy to keep the boat straight. The larger craft received the full force of the stream, and also it was much less heavily weighted than it had been.
“Want me to—” Bug Eye began. But when he saw, by the moonlight, the lines of intense effort in Roy’s face he stopped. This was no time for talk.
“Can you—hear ’em?” Teddy gasped, digging his paddle in deeper.
“Nope!” Pop answered laconically. He, alone, seemed to accept the situation calmly, staring straight ahead as he sat rigidly in the bottom of the canoe. Perhaps he feared the chase would be futile, or perhaps he realized that their best chance of success lay in going about the affair in a businesslike manner. His rifle, loaded, lay across his knees.
As the canoe shot downstream, Teddy, in the front, strained his ears for some indication of the boat they were following. But it seemed to have been swallowed up by the river. Surely they were going much faster than the other craft and should have caught them by this time. Unless—and Teddy frowned at the thought—unless they knew they were being pursued and made for the shore, pulling their lighter boat up out of sight.
Now the river seemed to take their canoe in a powerful grip and shake it. Roy paddled desperately, and succeeded in steadying it.