“Full speed ahead!” sang out Monkey, evidently entering into the spirit of the occasion with his customary zeal.
The floating cabin had a pretty good start of them, Hugh knew, but once the launch had reached the river, and turned down, they must speedily overcome this lead. He had no fears about not being able to overtake the runaway cabin, though when they presently started with the speeding current their progress was so swift that it almost made one dizzy to watch the shore line, so rapidly did it seem to glide past.
“We’re catching up hand over fist!” announced Monkey enthusiastically, from his post in the bow; but he no longer held this alone, since both Tip and Billy were crowded in alongside.
“And he’s still hanging on!” announced the Lawrence scout. “Good for him, whoever the little chap is. I like his grit!”
“Huh! I kind of guess he can’t do much else but hang on with all his might,” commented Billy. “There, didn’t you see him wave his hand at us then?”
“He’s discovered us, all right,” observed Monkey, “and like as not it gives him a new lot of strength to know we’re heading after him, poor kid.”
“Don’t forget to watch out for snags,” warned Hugh, “because going at this rate, if we ever banged into a log, it would be all up with the launch. And perhaps we’d be glad to climb up on that cabin roof with the boy.”
“Whew! I hope we don’t come to that yet a while, Hugh!” said Monkey. “I’m keeping a bright lookout for any floaters all the time. It isn’t near as bad as if we were breasting the current, you know. Then they’d hit us a savage smash, while now we’re all going the same way, only we’re beating everything else out of sight.”
Billy, seeing the imperiled boy once more waving his hand, took it upon himself to give him a return salute with his campaign hat. At the same time he let out a vigorous shout in hopes of cheering the poor castaway.
Already they had gone a mile or so below the flooded town, but they were rapidly overhauling the floating cabin.