"I see what you mean," remarked Mr. Marsh, "and it seems to have drifted away from the shore. Is that some man lying down in it? There, I saw the object move then. What is it, Longley?"
"A little baby, hardly more," came the startling reply. "Oh! he was nearly over the side, that time. However in the wide world do you suppose the child ever came to be in that boat? Here, take a look. Marsh. Another tilt like that, and the child will be drowned for certain!"
"Why, it must be Tommy Cragan, the fisherman's baby," said Larry, his face turning a bit gray with alarm. "I've seen the little shaver playing around his daddy's boat many a time. It must have floated off; and now it's away out on the lake, where the water is twenty feet deep!"
"Cracky! that's tough on poor old Cragan, with his wife sick abed!" groaned the sympathetic Elephant, as he strained his eyes to watch.
"If the child would only remain quiet there would be little danger," remarked Mr. Marsh, who was still looking through the glasses, as though something about the picture fascinated him.
"That's the trouble," remarked his companion, quickly, "the little chap is getting frightened, or else bolder, for he keeps leaning far over all the time. Can nothing be done to save the child? If I could swim I'd take a chance at it myself."
"We could run as fast as anything to Cragan's, sir," declared Elephant, "or perhaps you could take us in, and we'd show you the way there. He might have another boat, and would put out to save Tommy."
"I'm afraid that would be too late, good though the intention might seem," the man said regretfully.
"I can swim like a duck, sir. What's to hinder me jumping in and trying to get out there to him in time?" demanded Larry, hastening to start removing his shoes as he spoke.
"It's a long way out there, my boy, and you might take a cramp," said
Longley.