mp-worker. "An' if you slip,
look out thet you don't hurt yourselves!"

He was splashing along in water up to his knees, sometimes on the
rocks and then again on a sandbar running in that direction. Then he
had to make a turn, to avoid a deep portion of the stream, where the
current was rapid.

Ben was behind the man and Buster was just ahead of Dave. As all
struggled along, there came an extra heavy blast of wind, followed by
a perfect deluge of rain.

"Oh!" screamed Buster, an instant later, and peering through the rain,
Dave saw him suddenly throw up his arms and slip from a rock. There
was a splash, and poor Buster disappeared from view.

"Buster is in the river!" yelled our hero, and then he leaped for the
rock from which the stout youth had fallen. He looked down and saw an
arm and a head come up.

"Help! hel----" came from the unfortunate one, and then the swift
current caught him and turned him over, out of sight.

"Help!" yelled Dave, to attract the attention of those ahead. And
then, as he saw Ben turn back, he slipped down on the rock and into
the swirling river and struck out after Buster.

CHAPTER XXV

PERILS OF THE FLOOD

"Dave! Dave!" yelled Ben, as he saw our hero disappear into the
swiftly-flowing river. "Look out, or you'll both be drowned!"

"What's the trouble?" yelled Jerry Blutt, as he turned back for the
first time since leaving the island.

"Buster slipped in, and Dave went after him," answered Ben. "Oh, what
shall we do?" he went on, despairingly.

"Here--we'll throw out the rope!" answered the camp-worker, and took
from his shoulder a rope he carried.

In the meantime Dave had come up and was striking out with might and
main for his chum. Our hero realized that Buster must be hurt,
otherwise he would swim to save himself.

"Must have struck on his head, when he went over," he thought, and he
was right, poor Buster had done just that and now lay half-unconscious
as the current swept him further and further from his friends.

It was too dark to see much, and Dave had all he could do to keep in
sight of the unfortunate one. But presently the stout youth's body
struck against a rock and was held there, and our hero came up and
seized the lad by the arm.

"Buster! Buster!" he called out. "What's wrong? Can't you swim?"

"Hel--help me!" gasped the fat youth. "I--I got a knock on the head.
I'm so--so dizzy I do--don't know what I--I'm do--doing!"

The current now tore B