"Then, strike me lucky! it's better than I had hoped for."
Just then Carl came running up the bank and grabbed Dick's hand.
"I hat radder be porn lucky as hantsome, any tay," he rejoiced, "hey, Tick?"
[CHAPTER X.]
THE UNEXPECTED.
Ferral staggered to his feet.
"It's a regular monkey's fist to me," said he, "how we ever got out of that mess. The last I remember I was slamming into the branches of a tree, then something hit me and the sunshine was turned off. It can't be, mates, that I dropped clear through that tree and hit the ground? I'm tough, but I think I'd show more marks than I do if that had happened."
Matt explained how Dick had been got down out of the wreck of the Hawk.
"You lads must have had a rummy old time of it, hauling me around that tree top," went on Dick. "And so the good old Hawk is done for! She carried us many a mile, mates, and we'll never see her like again unless——" He paused.