“I’ll say not!” Jimmy grinned a little and took Brook’s arms, working them up and down, one after another. “Swallow any water?”
“Lots.” Brook was glad of that grin and he sheepishly grinned back. “My arms are all right, only sore. I’ll be black and blue from that rock I hit first. But I guess I deserve it.”
“Sure you do,” Jimmy said with a chuckle. “And to think I thought you were at the hut with Pat. Gosh, are we ever lucky! I guess none of us listened too carefully when Pat told us to be sure not to go off by ourselves. We’re guilty of the same thing you are, Brook,” he admitted. “Well, this has been a lesson we’ll never forget and I would say we’ve gotten off pretty cheaply if it just cost us the canoe. Let’s get back to Pat right away and tell him we’re all right.”
Alf and Jimmy helped Brook, who was white and wretched after his narrow escape, and when they got to their canoe they made rapidly for camp.
“Go limp, Brook,” said Jimmy, “and tell us all about it.”
Brook grinned, and said he was “limp all right,” and briefly told how he had tried to explore the little rapids that looked so easy, completely forgetting that there were falls in the vicinity. He also related the incident of the coat and pulled out a wet wad from his pocket.
“I was going to dry this,” said he, “and see if I couldn’t read a little of it. Maybe I might as well throw it away.”
“Maybe we can dry it yet,” suggested Alf, interested. “Perhaps it’s a map to a treasure.”
“Perhaps it isn’t,” laughed Jimmy, but he caught Brook’s hand as he was about to toss the letter overboard. “Wait. It’s still pretty flat in the envelope. We’ll dry it out and see. How long were you there when you found this?”
“Oh, about ten minutes or so.”