moment," and he ran back to where he had seen another fallen tree,
a tall, slender maple sapling. He soon had this in hand; and,
cleared of its branches, it made a capital pole. Dick and Sam sat
astride of the tree in the water, and Tom stood against an upright
branch and shoved off. The river was not deep, and he kept on
reaching bottom without difficulty.

By this time the tramp was halfway across the stream, which was
flowing, rapidly and carrying both boat and tree down toward a
bend quarter of a mile below.

"Go on back, unless you want to be shot!" cried the man savagely,
but they paid no attention to the threat as no pistol appeared;
and, seeing this, the thief redoubled his efforts to get away.

He was still a quarter of the distance from the opposite shore,
and the boys on the tree were in midstream, when Sam uttered a
shout. "There goes one of his oars! We can catch him now -- if
we try hard!"

It was true that the oar was gone, and in his anxiety to regain
the blade the tramp nearly lost the second oar. But his efforts
were unavailing, and he started to paddle himself to the bank,
meanwhile watching his pursuers anxiously.

"We'll get him," said Dick encouragingly, when, splash! Tom went
overboard like a flash, the lower end of his pole having slipped
on a smooth rock of the river bottom. There was a grand splutter,
and it was fully a minute before Tom reappeared -- twenty feet
away and minus his pole.