," Prescott declared.
"Let us be thankful that we're all here. We'll wait until Dan
is himself again before we do any talking."

"I'm all right," protested Dan Dalzell.

"Yes; I believe you are," Driggs nodded.

"'T' any rate, you won't die now of that dose of river water."

"Party ready to come back aboard the launch?" called the helmsman.

"Oh, don't hurry us, just now!" appealed Laura Bentley, going
over to him quietly. "We're all so interested and concerned in
what is going on over here."

So the helmsman waited, grumbling quietly to himself.

Some twenty of the high school girls had chartered the launch
for a morning ride up the river. Dainty enough the girls looked
in their cool summer finery. They formed a bright picture as
they stood grouped about Dick & Co. and the other male members
of the party.

"You fellows can say all you want to," mumbled Dan, "but the canoe
is gone for good and all! We won't have any more fun in it this
summer."

"Was that what ailed you, Dan?" teased Darrin. "You felt so badly
over the loss of the canoe that you tried to stay on the bottom
of the river with it?"

"My foot was caught, and I couldn't get it loose," Dan explained.
"I was trying to free myself, like mad, you may be sure, when
all at once I didn't know anything more. You fellows must have
had a job prying my foot loose."

"It was something of a job," Dick smiled, "especially as our time
was so limited down there at the bottom with you. The river
must be twenty feet deep at that point."

"All of that," affirmed Hiram Driggs.

By this time the high school girls had divided into little groups,
each group with a member of Dick & Co. all to itself. The girls
were engaging in that rather senseless though altogether charming
hero worship so dear to the heart of the average schoolboy.

"What caused the accident?" inquired one girl.

"Gallantry," smiled Greg. "We were all so anxious to see you
girls that we all turned at the same time. We made the canoe
heel, and then it filled and went down. But you can't blame us,
can you?"

"But you've lost your fine big canoe," cried Laura Bentley, looking
as though her pretty eyes were about to fill with tears.

"Yes," Dick admitted, "and, of course, it's too bad. But a lot
of other worse things might have happened, and I guess we'll get
over our loss some way."

"But that canoe meant so much for your summer fun," Laura went
on. "Oh, it's too bad!"

"May