stooped to once more; pick up a push-pole.

"Here, you Step, Hen and Davy, take hold in our place, because you're
fresh, and ought to do better work," Giraffe remarked, as he thrust his
pole into the hands of the former.

Now, under ordinary conditions Step Hen might have wanted to know by
what authority the lengthy, scout presumed to order him around, when
they were of the same rank in the patrol; but he realized the force of
what Giraffe had said, and hence accepted the pole without a murmur,
starting to work immediately; while, Davy did the same with the one Thad
allowed him to take.

"When you get the boat part way up toward where the anchor holds,"
observed the scout-master, "we'll drag the mudhook in, and stand ready
to throw it out again. By pulling on the cable after the anchor gets a
firm hold on bottom, it's possible to claw the boat along foot by foot.
I've done that same many a time; and it'll help out more than a little."

They speedily found that Thad spoke truly, and under the influence of
poles as well as the anchor drag the Chippeway Belle began to approach
the shore, much to the delight of Bumpus. When the fat scout, closely
observing the setting poles as they were dipped repeatedly into the
water, discovered that they struck bottom in a depth of not more than
four feet, he was ready to shout with joy. That meant it could not be
over his head; and if the worst came, he might wade to land.

Despite the fact that their vessel was a wreck, and about to sink, the
boys had no desire to complain just then. Their escape from threatening
danger had been too recent for them to feel ungrateful. Later on the