“We’ve got to be mighty careful how we travel through the rest of this river,” remarked Snap.  “The heavy rains have made a fierce torrent of it.”

It must be confessed that the boys did not know exactly what to do.  Should they venture on the river again, or carry the outfit to the beginning of Firefly Lake?

“I’ve got an idea,” said Shep at last.  “You can follow it or not, as you think best.  My idea is to have two of the crowd take the boat down and the two others walk to Firefly Lake, carrying the most precious of the outfit.”

“That suits me,” said Snap.

“Who will walk and who take the boat?” questioned Whopper.

“I might as well go in the boat—–­I’m wet already,” said Giant, smiling grimly.

“The three of us can draw lots as to who shall go with Giant,” said the doctor’s son.

The drawing was at once made, and it fell to Snap to go with the small youth.  The cameras and guns were taken from the rowboat and also a few other things.  Then the doctor’s son and Whopper aided the others in getting the boat into the rushing river once more.

“Take care of yourselves!” cried Shep.  “If all goes right you’ll get to the lake long before we do.”

In a moment the boat was caught by the current and whirled onward.  Giant and Snap had all they could do to steer it.  But, fortunately, they found no more such bad places as those already encountered, and in less than an hour found themselves floating on Firefly Lake, safe and sound.

“The others might have come with us after all,” declared Giant.  “Wonder how long it will take them to reach here?”

“I don’t know; it depends on how rough they find the way.  Maybe a couple of hours,” answered Snap.  “We may as well go ashore, start up a camp and wait for them.”

CHAPTER X

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

The doctor’s son and Whopper had no easy time of it making their way through the bushes and around the rocks which lined the watercourse between the two lakes.  There was no trail on that side of the stream, and they had to “go it blind,” to use Shep’s words.

“Say, this is worse than climbing a mountain!” gasped Whopper, after slipping and sliding over a number of rocks and coming down rather suddenly in a hollow.

“Rather knocks the breath out of a fellow,” returned Shep.  “Take care that you don’t sprain an ankle, Whopper.”

“That’s what I’m watching out for.  I don’t want my whole outing spoiled.”

After a large amount of hard walking and climbing they managed to cover about half the distance to Firefly Lake.  But by that time both were so exhausted the doctor’s son called a halt.

“No use of killing ourselves,” he said.  “We can’t go any farther than the lake to-day, anyway.”

“Hope Snap and Giant wait for us at the mouth of the river,” said Whopper.  “I don’t want to tramp along the lake shore afoot.”