hey waved frantically to the person on the shore, and he waved
frantically in return, and at last all were convinced that it must
really be their missing chum.

"He must think I am Jerry," said Dave. "Won't he be surprised to see
me!"

"He will be, unless he was at the cabin last night and read the note,"
returned Buster.

"The note wasn't touched," said Ben. "I noticed that it was exactly as
we left it."

All gave a parting wave and pointed to the shore, and then left the
hill. They made their way down to the cabin, and told the camp-worker
what they had seen.

"It must be Lawrence," said Jerry Blutt. "Maybe he'll come over here,
instead of waiting for us to go to him."

"Gracious, I never thought of that!" cried Buster.

"We'll be like the men in one of Shadow's stories," said Ben. "One was
upstairs in a big office building and one downstairs. The man
upstairs went down, and the downstairs man went up, and they kept that
up until both stopped, tired out, one upstairs and one down." And the
others had to smile at the brief yarn.

All journeyed to the lower shore of the island, where they could get a
better view of the spot where the person they thought was Phil had
been. They saw the party walking up the river bank, looking for a good
place to ford. All shouted loudly and waved their hands to keep him
where he was, and he nodded his head deeply, to show that he
understand.

"It must be Phil," said Dave. "Oh, how thankful I am that he wasn't
carried away by the flood!"

The boys were impatient to get back to the shore, and Jerry Blutt did
not blame them. To carry any of the stuff over was still out of the
question, and they did not attempt it.

"You can come and get it some day, Jerry," said Buster. "You can ship
it to us by express, and we'll pay you for your trouble;" and so it
was arranged.

It was as hard to gain the shore as it had been to reach the island,
and all were well-nigh exhausted when they finally left the water, not
to return again. Phil saw them coming, and when he made out Dave he
was almost dumfounded.

"Where in the world did you come from?" he demanded, as he caught our
hero by the hand.

"From Oakdale, Phil."

"Did you run away, too?" demanded the shipowner's son.

"Hardly," answered Dave, with a grin. "I came to bring you fellows
back. But first tell us, how did you get out of the flood last
night?"

"Oh, I had a fierce time of it. I tried to get back to the camp, but
stu