His chum handed him the desired tool and the lad raised up the false flooring in the launch's bottom which hid the shaft from view.
What he expected to find was that one of the screws which fastened the propeller shaft had come loose and needed tightening, but what he saw filled his face with dismay. Rising, he stepped back to the stern and peered over under the launch's counter.
"Our propeller's gone," he announced, straightening up. "That leaves us in a pretty fix—five miles from shore. We'll have to take some of these bottom boards and paddle in, and it's going to be slow, hard work."
"I wonder how it happened," said Walter, as he fell to work with a heavy board for a paddle.
"It didn't happen. It was just done," his chum said, grimly. "Evidently our friend Hunter got home before we expected him. He must have done it last night when we were all asleep."
"Are you sure?" inquired Captain Westfield.
"As sure as a person can be who did not actually see it done. The shaft was sawn three-fourths in two. The cut part is bright, showing that it was done recently. It was a clever trick all right. You see, it would not give way immediately but would wear in two, gradually, where it was cut. I guess he was in hopes it would break with us out in a seaway where we couldn't do anything. Luckily, it's happened when it is calm and we are not such a great ways from shore."
But although the distance to shore was not so very great, it did not take them long to realize that it was going to take them a long time to cover it. The launch was deep and heavy in the water and with their rude, heavy, ungainly paddles they could only force her forward very slowly.
"It's going to be after dark when we reach the inlet," the captain said, anxiously. "I do not believe we are making over half a mile an hour."
Indeed, they were not making as good progress as that, for when dark settled down upon the water, they were a full three miles from shore and their arms and backs were beginning aching with the steady strain of wielding the heavy boards. Soon after the sun set, the wind commenced to freshen and the launch began to bob and drift about in a way to discourage further effort.