Some one may have cut a pole and poled her away, up or down the creek, or----" "I'll tell you," interrupted Rectus.

"Crowded Owl!" I didn't feel much like laughing, but I did laugh a little.
"Yes," I said.

"He probably swam over with a pair of oars on purpose to steal our boat.

But, whether he did it or not, it's very certain that somebody has taken the boat, and there isn't any way, that I see, of getting off this place to-night.

There'll be nobody going over so late in the afternoon--except, to be sure, those men we saw at the other end of the island with a flat-boat." "But that's away over at the upper end of the island," said Rectus.
"That's not so very far," said I."I wonder if they have gone back yet?
If one of us could run over there and ask them to send a boatman from the town after us, we might get back by supper-time." "Why not both of us ?" asked Rectus.
"One of us should stay here to see if our boat does come back.