"They went south so's to skip Boggs City.

Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er that other feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this pike so's to get to the big bridge.

My idee is that they allowed to drop the body in the river, which ain't friz plum over." "Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the river, are we, Anderson ?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.
"_I_ ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I want to." And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the ice-laden river.

As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the middle span, staring down into the black water with its navy of swirling ice-chunks, even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and grew faint.
"Boys," he said, "we've lost the track! Not even a bloodhound could track 'em in that water." "Bloodhound ?" sniffed Harry Squires.

"A hippopotamus, you mean." They were hungry and cold, and they were ready to turn homeward.
Anderson said he "guessed" he'd turn the job over to the sheriff and his men.