Page:Moving Picture Boys and the Flood.djvu/215

Rh "But it will be better than staying here and getting—well, getting your feet wet," spoke Blake. He was going to say "drowned," but changed his mind.

Higher and higher came the water. There was now only a space of not more than a hundred feet square, to which the refugees had retreated as an area of safety. The raft floated in the water, moored by a long rope of twisted grapevine, and ready for our friends to embark on it.

Packages of food were made ready to be taken along, and also a keg of fresh water. The water supply troubled them, as the spring was now covered by the flood, and all they had was some which they had stored for just that emergency,

"We'll take along the tents," said Mr. Ringold. "They'll come in useful, as shelter on the raft."

"And we'll have to take to the raft in the morning, I think," Mr. Piper said. "At the rate the river is rising, we won't have ground under our feet much longer than that."

Gloomy, uncertain and miserable was that night. The campfire, which had hitherto been kept up, not without a great deal of work, went out in the rain, and, save for a few lanterns, there was no light. Naturally there was no heat,