“This lad’s all right, now,” declared Hiram Driggs.  “Help him to his feet and walk him about a bit until he gets the whole trick of breathing again.  Dalzell, didn’t you know any better than to try to swallow the whole river and ruin my business?”

A faint grin parted Dan’s lips.

“Oh, I’m so thankful,” sighed Laura Bentley.  “Dick, I was afraid there would be but five of you left when I saw Dan being hoisted aboard!”

Soon Dalzell was able to laugh nervously.  Then a scowl darkened his face.

“I’m the prize idiot of Gridley!” he muttered faintly.

“What’s the matter now?” Dave Darrin demanded.

“The canoe is lost, and it’s all my fault,” moaned Dalzell.  “Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!”

“Bother the canoe!” cried Dick impatiently.  “We’re lucky enough that no lives have been lost.”

“But I—–­I turned and upset the craft,” wailed Dan.

“There were others of us,” said Greg sheepishly.  “If we had had the sense of babies none of us would have turned, and there wouldn’t have been any accident.”

“This is no time to talk about canoe etiquette,” 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.