“Well, you come and have a look. Maybe your sight is better than mine. I haven’t my glasses with me and so, of course, I may be mistaken, but nevertheless and notwithstanding——”
“Well, I’ll be switched!” muttered Nick, holding a flaring match aloft in the darkness. “Now how the dickens——”
“I guess,” offered Dud, “that getting in and out of them to drink pushed them off.”
“That’s the jolly story,” agreed Hugh. “But they were there the last time I went down.”
“Who took the last drink?” asked Jimmy.
“You did, didn’t you? Did you see both canoes then?”
Jimmy turned to Nick in the gloom and considered. At last: “I didn’t notice,” he confessed. “It was pretty dark then——”
“But I say,” interrupted Hugh, “what are we going to do, eh?”
“Beat it home, ’Ighness,” responded Nick, “if you know what I mean. There’s no use looking for the pesky things tonight. I dare say, anyway, they’ll run aground somewhere before they get very far. What we’ve got to do is foot it back. How far is it, Jimmy?”