The boys realized this and stuck to mid-channel. The continued speed of the current mystified them considerably, and they were quite at a lost to account for it until Ned raised the lantern, and turned it on the surface of the creek.
"Good gracious!" he cried. "The water is yellow with mud. The creek is rising. No wonder it runs like a mill race. This same storm must have deluged the upper end of the valley before it reached here."
Proof of Ned's assertion was not wanting, for that instant the canoes rustled through the protruding grass of a submerged island.
The water Sprite stuck fast on what was probably the crest, and the Pioneer instantly swung around with the current, shaking off the folds of the tent.
Randy turned sideways to see how his companion was faring, and his face suddenly blanched.
"Look! look! Ned," he cried in a hoarse, frightened voice. "What is that?"
Randy's alarming cry was called forth by the discovery of a long dusky object that was bearing rapidly down upon the canoes.
The same chilling fear entered the hearts of both lads they watched its noiseless approach. They believed it to be an upturned canoe—a message fraught with tidings of disaster.