"Yes, they are stuck fast, and we are drifting right on top of them!"
The news proved true, the launch had gotten caught on a sunken tree trunk and was helpless on the bosom of the river, the propeller whirling madly. The houseboat was less than two hundred feet away and coming forward as swiftly as the current could carry her.
"Look out! Don't smash us—we are stuck!" yelled Dan Baxter.
"Sheer off!" came from Solly Jackson. "Sheer off, or we'll all be wrecked!"
It was a position of unexpected and extreme peril, and those on the houseboat realized it as well as those on the launch. Yet what to do our friends did not exactly know.
"Out with the sweeps—on this side!" called out Dick, and ran for the biggest sweep he could find. "Jam over the rudder!" he called to Songbird, who was at the tiller.
The rudder went over in a jiffy and out went three long sweeps. This served to swing the houseboat over several points, but not enough to take her entirely out of the course of the launch.
"We are going to hit as sure as fate!" cried Sam.
"Yes, and we may all go to the bottom," answered Fred.
