"Oh, that doesn't bother me one little bit just now. All I'm thinking
about is how under the sun we're going to get out of this pickle," said
Frank, sweeping his hand around, as if to call attention to the angry
water that leaped and boiled in a frenzy of eagerness to get at its
expected victims.

"Can't swim to the shore, that's sure. I suppose we'll just have to slip
in again and make another turn of it. Thank goodness! the bottom of the
old rapids is in sight, and as Bluff and Reddy have picked up our boat
and the paddle, they could turn their hands at life saving when we came
bobbing along."

"Hold on! Don't be rash, Jerry!" called Frank.

"Well, have you got anything better to say about it--any bright scheme
to propose that offers to soften the blow?" demanded the other, pausing
in his movement toward slipping off his unstable seat.

"I've just thought of something," answered Frank.

"Good for you, then. I guess I'm too badly rattled just now, for once,
to do much thinking. What's the game, Frank?"

"Why not let Reddy and his reliable old rope come into play again?"

"Say! we'll have to beg or buy that clothesline from Reddy when we go
away from here, and hang it up in our clubroom, as the most valuable
asset we have. Without it what would become of us, eh? Talk about your
trained nurses! That fellow is a whole hospital to the tenderfoot crowd.
Call to him, please, and enlist his sympathy in the noble cause of