That, however, would be difficult. At no place did either river bank approach the island closely. The likeliest chance appeared to be to cross to the left bank, that upon which was the main party, by means of a score of half-submerged rocks, between and over which the water boiled and . These rocks lay between the forward end of the island and the shore.
“We might be able to leap from rock to rock in some cases, and in others to bridge the with poles,” said , considering the situation, as he and the two others, with Matse behind them, stood on the shore near these rocks.
“But then,” said Frank, “we’d have to abandon the raft.”
Jack nodded gloomily.
At one other point, another solution suggested itself. Near the upstream end of the island, on the side opposite that upon which they had landed, the mainland was less than one hundred yards away. And through this channel the water, as they by tossing chips into the current, flowed less swiftly. A strong swimmer, heading upstream, probably would be able to make his way to the opposite shore before being swept down into the rapids below. He could carry a rope and, once such a connection was made, other ropes could be passed back and until a strong enough ferry was established to make it possible to transport the raft without danger of the ropes parting and letting it be carried down.
But where was rope to be obtained? Examination of the boxes revealed numbers were bound with short ends of rope. But all these tied together would not be of sufficient length to bridge the channel even once. And more than one rope, as experience had revealed, would be necessary to ensure safety.
“We might make a rope of creepers,” Bob suggested, at length, as, after a survey of their resources, the three stood on the raft, gazing at each other.
“Dad has several big coils of rope with him,” said Jack. “If we could only get in touch with him and tell him to cross the river up above and come down on the right bank.”
Bob looked at his watch. “More than three hours since we started our journey,” he commented. “Great Scott, I hadn’t realized how long we’d been on the way. Why, we must have been carried fifteen miles downstream.”
“All of that,” said Jack. “And Dad will have a hard time making his way through the underbrush and jungle growth along that river bank on his side of the stream. He’ll keep hunting till he finds us. But we can hardly look for him to put in an appearance today. Well, thank goodness, we not only saved ourselves but the raft and its supplies, too. That’s something. And we’ll find a way out of this all right.”
Frank who, although the smallest of the three suffered most from the heat oppression, had remained silent, sitting on a box and fanning his flushed face with his sun helmet. Now he leaped to his feet, and his eyes lost the look induced by the heat and sparkled with .
“Jack, if we’ve been gone more than three hours, it’s dollars to doughnuts that we can get in touch with your father.”
“You mean—”
“Radio. No less,” answered Frank, . Then he proceeded to elaborate.
“Your father, as you say, cannot have pushed his way very far through that jungle growth in three short hours. He knows that whether the blacks swam for it or not, we would stick to the raft as long as there remained a chance to save it. So he will figure either that we have reached shore somewhere below him with the raft or else that we are still being carried downstream. After he has forced his way through the jungle a mile or two, what is he most likely to do? Why, to set up the radio and start calling for us on the chance that we are doing likewise. Doesn’t that seem probable.”
“Probable or not,” said Bob, beginning at once to about amongst the contents of the raft in search of the box containing the spare transmitting set; “at least putting up the radio will give us something to do.”
“Right,” said Jack, laying his hand on a case, “and here it is. Now to get it set up.”
The blacks, with the exception of Matse who sat on the bank, were not in sight, having to a back amongst the trees and gone to sleep. Their philosophy seemed to be to leave worry to the young white men.
“Anyhow, we wouldn’t need them,” Jack. “Because we won’t have to take this stuff
Join or Log In!
You need to log in to continue reading