Instead of coming around to camp by the trail they rowed across the lake. They started from a willow tree up near the outlet. That was where they had left the boat on the way down to Catskill. You’ll see that tree. The reason why they didn’t go around by the trail was because on account of the mud. It had been raining all the time for about a week and the trail was bad, especially in the woods. There were great big puddles in the woods like young lakes.
That afternoon when they came back it was very dark and while they were coming across the lake toward camp all of a sudden a thunder-storm started. Gee whiz, I can remember it because we were helping to pile up lumber at the new landing, and the wind blew over a pile of boards. We were just scooting for the pavilion when all of a sudden Worry Aiken (he was in a troop from Vermont), he shouted, “Look at the boat! Look at the boat! Look at the boat!”
Oh, boy, I’ll never forget what we saw. The boat was about maybe two or three hundred feet from the shore where the willow tree is. It was so dark and the water was so all churned up like that we couldn’t see very plain. But anyway it seemed to me the boat was upside down.
I know one thing, I had a funny kind of a feeling, gee, I can’t tell you about it, but I felt as if maybe I would see something later that I didn’t want to see. It felt all kind of, you know, sort of like when you’re in an elevator and it stops suddenly.
The next thing I saw, a figure crawled up on the shore away over on the other side. A scout said, “Look!” That was when I first saw it. It looked black and low down like an animal. Then it seemed to stay still.
I said, kind of whispered, I was so scared, “I don’t see the boat any more.”
Garry Everson (he comes from down the Hudson), he said, “It’s there, look where the light is—just this side of the light.”
Then I could see it. It was upside down. You could hardly tell it from the water. There wasn’t anybody near it that I could see. Besides, I couldn’t see the person on the shore any more. I felt as if pretty soon I would hear of something terrible.
Once in my class room a pupil had a kind of an attack on account of his heart, and they carried him out. And they said we should go on with our lessons, but anyway it seemed kind of funny and afterwards we found out he was dead. So kind of that’s the same way I felt that afternoon.
In about half a minute all the camp was down at the lake and everybody was excited. Most all the kids were told to go in the pavilion. Tom Slade had a big oilcloth hat, rubber boots and a lantern. He looked kind of like a picture of a fisherman or a captain on a boat or something. It kind of gave me thrills to see him because, gee whiz, that fellow always knows what he’s about.