“What do you make of that light brown object just the other side of the little sand point sticking out into the river?” asked Sandy.
“I was looking at it myself,” responded Dick. “I thought it was a log with the bark off it at first, but it might be a canoe.”
“It looks a lot like a canoe—as if they tried to hide it under some brush but the brush sprung up after they left and exposed it.”
“We’ll turn in and see,” Dick plied his paddle lustily, and the light craft swerved toward the shore.
“Aren’t we taking an awful risk?” Sandy was cautious. “Suppose they’re close to us.”
“We’ll take a chance,” Dick returned. “Better take a chance now than have them catch up with us in that canoe. It’s plain they’re not here yet.”
Nerves keyed high at thought of the peril they might be floating into, Dick and Sandy bore swiftly into the sand point, and presently the bottom of the canoe grated on the gravel. Dick leaped out into the shallow water and beached the canoe, Sandy following closely.
“It’s a canoe sure enough!” Dick exclaimed when they reached the spot where they had seen the suspicious object.
“And they tried to hide it,” Sandy came back, as they drew nearer. “See the tracks in the mud? Say! That canoe hasn’t been there a day, if that!”
“You’re right!” Dick cried, “and right here and now we’re going to see that nobody chases us in this canoe.”
“We’ll set her adrift,” Dick went on, unheeding Sandy’s precautions. “Here, Sandy, you grab the bow and I’ll get around behind and push. Soon as we get it out in the current it’ll float down where they can’t find it. We might sink it, but we’d have to tow it into the river and we haven’t time.”
Sandy fell to work with a will. The canoe was lodged in the mud rather securely and they strained for some minutes before it at last came loose with a suck and splash that nearly tumbled Sandy over. An instant later they had shoved the canoe out into the stream, where the current caught it and carried it past the sand point.
The young adventurers paused to gaze with satisfaction upon this blow they felt they had dealt the enemy, when a sound from the shore drew their startled attention.
They could hear a crashing among the trees. Looking toward the forest they could see nothing at first. Then suddenly, into a small clearing that led down to the river bank, burst three men, running and waving their rifles menacingly.