“Not—not me!” Bug Eye stuttered, shivering and resting one hand against a tree to steady himself. “I thought—”
“Never mind about that!” Teddy cried tensely, fully aroused now to the dangers of the situation. “We’ve got to hunt for him! Bug Eye, you go downstream! Pop, you come with me!”
“I seen him hanging on to that rock we hit,” Pop declared, craning his neck forward and seeking to pierce the blackness. To add to their troubles the moon had disappeared behind clouds and the night was as dark as pitch.
“I saw that, too!” Teddy exclaimed, opening and closing his hands. “You two—for heaven’s sake don’t stand there gaping! Roy is lost—maybe—”
“Now, maybe nothin’,” Pop Burns interrupted. “If you want to help him most, Teddy, just take it easy an’ don’t waste none of yore energy in boilin’ over. We’ll find Roy all right. He just came ashore at another place.”
“I sure hope so!” Teddy breathed. “It’s so blamed dark here! The moon is gone—we haven’t a dog’s chance of seeing him. But we can yell.” He raised his voice once more in a shout. “Roy! Yay-y-y, Roy!”
“That won’t do no good,” Pop said gently. “We got to hunt. He may be hurt, an’ lyin’ on the shore somewheres. We’ll get him, sure, when daylight comes.”
“We’ll get him before that!” Teddy said determinedly, and started to run along the bank.
“You go the other way,” Pop directed in a low voice to Bug Eye. “I’ll follow Teddy—I don’t like the way he’s talkin’. Roy may be pretty badly hurt after all, an’ Teddy feels it. I seen Roy go head-on to that rock, but I wouldn’t tell Ted that. We’ll meet you at camp. If you find Roy, give a good loud yell—that is, if he’s—not hurt too bad.” And Pop swallowed quickly. Then he turned and followed Teddy.
The boy was a good distance ahead, and Pop had to hurry to catch him. He located him by the crashing of the bushes as Teddy ran along, almost blindly, calling Roy every five yards.