Page:Moving Picture Boys and the Flood.djvu/126

116 The little boy was quite fretful after supper, and cried for his lost home and parents. But Blake induced him to listen to some fairy stories, and finally Charlie House fell asleep, and was put in his bunk.

"Poor little chap," murmured Blake, as he tucked the child in snugly. "Poor little chap!" And then Blake thought of Birdie Lee, and the others of the lost theatrical party.

"If you boys will stay here with the boat, Mr. Piper and I will go to town and see if there is any answer to the telegram I sent this morning, from the upper village," said Mr. Ringold, when dusk had fallen. He had taken this method, instead of waiting for an answer to his wire. A message had been sent to the New York office, asking if any news had been received of the missing ones, and a request was made that any reply might be sent to Canton, which was the village above which they were now tied up.

"Sure, we'll stay here," agreed Joe. "And I hope you get some word."

But it was a vain hope, there being no reply to the message of inquiry.

"The river is slowly rising," remarked Mr. Piper, with something of a return of his former gloomy manner. "It's going up about an inch and a half an hour. The townspeople are afraid