"I'm the champion diver of the South Branch," Jule cried, "and I'll go down and have that line fast in about a second."
"I've stood on my head in deeper water than that," said the boy.
Case got out the rowboat and Jule was taken over to the place from which he was to dive. The end of the cable was passed to him and he dropped down. In a moment, he came climbing up the rope like a young monkey, shaking water over Case as he tumbled into the boat.
"Now get a-going," he said, "and we'll have this boat out of the mud before Clay and Alex return. I wonder what we'll find on board of her."
"You don't expect to find a lost channel, do you? Or a casket of family jewels?" asked Case, with a wink.
"I was thinking," Jule replied, "that we might find something to eat."
The boys rowed back to the _Rambler_, clambered on board, and the motor boat was started forward, one end of the cable attached to her after deck cleats. She pulled steadily for a moment under full power, but the launch refused to move. She was evidently deeply imbedded in the bottom.
"I reckon we'll have to go down and push," Case grinned.
"You just wait, boys, and I'll try it once more," Captain Joe said.
The second attempt was successful, and the _Cartier_ was drawn slowly, carefully, to the bar. When she left her original position on the bottom of the river, she listed to one side and so came in almost on her beam ends.
"I guess we've spilled some of her crockery," Jule laughed as the boat showed one side of her hull. "Fontenelle may kick on our wearing out his furniture."
"Oh, he'll be glad enough to get his boat back," Captain Joe remarked. "Now, we'll see if we can pump her out."
The launch now lay tipping only slightly on the bar, her keel having cut into the soft sand, with her gunwales two or three inches above the surface of the river. The cabin stood well out of the river, of course, but the great body of water in the cockpit and over the cabin floor held her down.
"Now we'll see if we can't pump her out," Captain Joe said. "I don't understand what sent her to the bottom. She looks to be as fit as a fiddle."
"Perhaps we can tell that when we get the water out of her," Case suggested. "There may be a big hole in her bottom."