The brown bear, blinded by smoke, and thinking the canoe some log to cling to, clawed at the rim of the frail craft and pulled down. The canoe went over, spilling its contents into the river, while the bear, finding the craft unstable, swam on out into the river.
CHAPTER V
MACKENZIE’S LANDING
The plunge into the river revived both Dick and Sandy. Gasping, they came up for air, only to breathe the choking smoke and gases of the burning forest. They knew that the canoe was upside down and that their packs were in the bottom of the river. The bear was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you all right, Sandy?” called Dick, hoarsely.
“You bet,” Sandy replied, a bit faintly.
Among the burning brands sizzling in the water, and the flying sparks, they struggled with the canoe. In a few minutes they had righted it, though it was half full of water. The paddles, they could see, had gone with the packs.
“Look for a paddle!” shouted Dick. “They must be floating around somewhere.”
“There! I see one,” Sandy dived off as he spoke, and swam back quickly with a paddle in one hand.
But look as they did they could not locate the other paddle.
“We can’t look any longer. We’ll have to change off with one paddle,” Dick called a little later.