of the girls. "I heard Mr. Driggs tell Dick Prescott that, as
nearly as they could guess, you opened your mouth a trifle just
before Dick and Dave reached you and freed you from that awful
trap. Mr. Driggs said that if you had been under water two minutes
longer there would have been a different story to tell."

"I wonder how long I was under water?" mused Dan.

"Long enough to drown, Danny Grin," replied Clara Marshall gravely.

Meanwhile the scow was making slow headway out into the river
and slightly up stream.

"Dick, don't you think this canoeing is going to prove too dangerous
a sport for you boys?" asked Laura, regarding him with anxious
eyes.

"Not when we get so that we know how to behave ourselves in a
canoe, Laura," young Prescott answered.

"Yet, no matter how skilful you become, some unexpected accident
may happen at any moment," she urged.

"You wouldn't have us be mollycoddles, would you?" asked Dick
in surprise.

"Certainly not," replied Laura with emphasis.

"Yet you would advise us to avoid everything that may have some
touch of danger in it."