“Human natur’!” sputtered Jake, who was the first to rise to the surface. “What’s the matter with you feller in the bow? Why didn’t you tell me that the snag was there, so’t I could have kept cl’ar of it?”
I knew now what Jake Coyle’s plan was, and felt the keenest anxiety for the two men who had been so unexpectedly dumped over-board, for I had heard them say that they could not swim ten feet to save their lives. But fortunately they could swim a little. Their heads bobbed up almost as quick as Jake’s did, and as soon as they had taken in the situation, they struck out for the snag. They were greatly alarmed, although, as I afterward learned, there was not the slightest reason for it. If they had allowed their feet to sink toward the bottom, they would have found that the water at that place was not more than shoulder-deep.
“How could I be expected to act as lookout when I was sitting with my back to the front end of the boat?” demanded Jim, as soon as he could speak. “Where’s my grip-sack?”
“And mine?” exclaimed his companion. “Boy, have you got ’em?”
“I ain’t got nothin’,” answered Jake. “Didn’t you hold fast to ’em when the boat capsized? Then they went to the bottom of the lake, most likely, an’ you won’t never see ’em agin, ’cause the water’s more’n four hundred feet deep right here, an’ the mud goes down a hundred feet furder.”
I had floated off the sawyer the instant I was relieved of the weight of my three passengers, and the current, which at this point set pretty strongly toward the outlet, carried me within reach of Jake Coyle’s arm. As he spoke, he gave me a sly but vigorous push, which sent me out of sight of the two men who were clinging to the sawyer, but not so far away but that I could hear every word they said. When they found that their valises had gone to the bottom, their fear gave place to rage, and they fell to abusing Jake and each other.
“I knew we would come to grief if we got into that canoe, but you insisted on it, and now you see what we have made by it,” said one of the men after he had sworn himself out of breath. “How are we going to get to Canada when we haven’t got five dollars between us? We’ve put ourselves in a fair way of going to prison, and we haven’t a thing to show for it.”