"Otherwise he'd have said that it would never clear. He isn't so bad—at times."
"No, not at times," admitted Blake, with a grin.
The abutment on which one end of the bridge had rested, served as a pier for the boat, which was, after some difficulty, made fast to it.
"All aboard," called the captain. "We'll take as many as we can, and come back for the rest. It isn't a very long trip, nor is it an easy one. All aboard."
To the delight of Mr. Ringold, he, the boys and Mr. Piper were among the first selected to go. The train conductor had intimated to the boat captain that the manager was anxious to start on a search for missing members of his company who had been in Hannibal.
"We'll do all we can for you," the captain promised. "It's a terrible time, and it's going to be worse. I don't say that to alarm you, but so that you may know what you have to face."
"Thank you," spoke the manager. "I realize that it isn't going to be easy."
The stream, up which the boat had come was not, ordinarily, navigable by such large boats, but the rising waters had turned it from hardly more than a brook into a raging river, pouring into the Mississippi itself.
