“Gosh, I’m sorry,” Dan apologized. “I know Mr. Holloway told us never to lay a paddle across the canoe, but I was in such a hurry to get that water lily, I forgot.”
“We’ll lose the paddle, if we don’t fish it out of the river pretty fast. Wow! Look at it travel down stream!”
The paddle had cleared the lily pads and reeds and was floating free. Apparently, it was caught in a fast-moving current, for it traveled down river at an astonishing rate.
Brad dipped in his paddle, heading the canoe in pursuit. A few firm strokes brought him alongside.
However, as Dan reached out to scoop in the runaway, it again moved beyond his grasp.
“Say, we are in a fast current!” he agreed.
Brad paddled again, and after another miscalculation, managed to rescue the truant paddle.
“A nice exhibition!” he grinned. “I hope that teaches me a lesson.”
Brad did not chide his friend for carelessness. In fact, he was thinking more about the current than he was of the manner in which the paddle had been lost.
“Wonder what causes such a fast movement in this particular part of the river?” he speculated. “It gives me the idea—”
What the idea was, Dan never learned. For just then, Mr. Hatfield yelled across the water, motioning for the boys to come in.
“He saw me drop that paddle all right,” Dan said ruefully.
Mr. Hatfield did not scold the two boys, merely reminding them again that safety rules must be observed at all times.
“You’re both swimmers,” he said, “but even so, you can’t afford to take chances. Besides, you must set examples for the other Cubs.”
“It won’t happen again, Mr. Hatfield,” Dan promised. “I just had a mental lapse, that’s all.”
The Cub leader told the boys that the Indian pow-wow definitely had been set for the following Saturday.
“That doesn’t give us much time,” Brad said anxiously. “Think you can get the sand painting finished in time, Dan?”
Feeling that not an hour should be wasted, Dan called Midge and Chips and the three again went to work.
On the east side of the picture, Dan made a circle to represent the sun, filling it in with colored sand.
He was hard at work when Brad called to say that the other Cubs were hiking to the cliff to see if any more work had been done on the carved face.
