Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/401

 something that would bear looking into. Their boat was loitering along two or three rods behind the others, Roy and Arthur doing he rowing, while Joe was stretched out flat on the knapsacks, his chin resting on his arms which were supported by the gunwale, and his eyes fastened upon the bank. All at once he started up and said, in a low tone:

"Cease rowing. Look at that."

"Look at what?" demanded Roy, after he and Arthur had run their eyes up and down the bank without seeing any thing that was calculated to excite astonishment. "At those bushes growing in the water? That's nothing, for we've seen bushes growing in the water ever since we came into the creek."

"I am aware of it; but if you will look closely at these particular bushes, you will see that the bark is scraped off some of them, and that they all lean away from the creek as if some heavy body had been dragged over them," answered Joe. "Back port and give way starboard. Let's turn in here; and if we don't find something or other on the opposite side, I shall wonder."