Step spoke sharply. “Say, there’s the river! It must be high, and if either or both of them fell in——”
He had no need to finish the sentence. Mrs. Grant uttered an exclamation; the boys moved uneasily; even Lon seemed to be impressed by the suggestion.
“Great Scott, but we’d ought to thought o’ that sooner! Any boys is footless, sometimes, and if you’d tried to pair up a queer mated couple, you couldn’t ’a’ picked a more uncertain combination o’ performers than the Shark and that Varley lad’d make.”
“That—that’s so, Lon,” Sam agreed heavily.
Mrs. Grant took the floor again. “Don’t get flustered! I’ve got an idea. Wait, everybody, till I see how it can be worked.”
Once more she hurried into the hall, and again there were sounds to indicate that she was busy at the telephone. Ten minutes passed—and to Sam they seemed to be very dragging minutes—before she returned, and addressed him.
“Well, I’ve made a good beginning on the idea, all right. I’ve called up your folks in town, young man, and I’ve had a talk with your mother. She understood things—I knew she would, for I guess she’s a good, sensible woman, seeing the sort of son she’s got. And she saw at once what an awful trip back you’d have. And she said I could keep you over night, and she’d call up all the other mothers and let ’em know you were all right. And so that part of it’s fixed. Now we come to the next part. You’re so uneasy about those strayaways that you’d be hopping around like corn in a popper if you couldn’t go hunting ’em. And I guess I’d be hopping, too, if you weren’t trying to find ’em. For they ought to have shown up long ago. And with Mr. Grant to help, and the hired man—why, we ought to be able to know something mighty quick. So, if that’s your idea, too, and if you’re ready——”
“If!” Sam shouted, and sprang to his feet. “If? Why, ma’am, I’ve been aching to go for the last hour!”
“Well, I guess you ain’t lonesome in that,” said Mrs. Grant briskly.
The other boys, and Lon and Mr. Grant, for that matter, had risen almost as quickly as Sam himself.