Pud couldn’t see just how he could have done that, though. He guessed it was better to get the boat back than to have risked failure seeking credit for the exploit. Besides, maybe Lank and Cocker――and the other man who had talked so funny――would feel more worried and humiliated if they weren’t able to account for the boat’s disappearance. Maybe they’d think it was spooks! On the whole, Pud was pretty well satisfied. He did wish, though, that he knew whether the men had stolen the contents of the lockers. There was no time to satisfy himself on that point now, but, since they had not taken the tent and the beds and the cooking-kit, he didn’t think it likely they had disturbed the things that were out of sight. The launch did what Pud believed to be a mile without misadventure. She did strike a snag once, but she broke through it without damage to the propeller. Where the creek was leading him he didn’t know, save that it must eventually bring him either into Two-Pond Run or Turtle Creek. Since leaving the Hole he had, he reckoned, been going in a generally southwesterly direction, and it seemed that Two-Pond Creek must be somewhere ahead. Once on that stream, he meant to double back and rescue Tim and Harmon. He recalled their plight with mingled sympathy and amusement. Tim, he decided, would be complaining like anything about now! More than once he caught sight of small streams leading away from the one he traversed, but he had no use for them, and it was not until what seemed another mile had been left behind that he was called on to choose between divergent courses. Turning somewhat abruptly to the left, he saw, as the boat swung, a sizable stream leading away to the right. He stumbled back and threw out the clutch, but by the time the launch had slowed down the other opening was far back. Perhaps it would lead to Two-Pond Run, he reflected, but it looked in the darkness rather as if it went back toward Swamp Hole. Besides, it was much narrower than the stream he was on, and it might peter out and lead him nowhere. Half an hour later he was glad he had not taken it, for then he came to a creek fully as large as the one it entered, one that started off in just the right direction. It wasn’t until he had gone some distance along it that he discovered that the current was flowing against him! Dismay vanished, though, when he recalled the erratic behavior of River Swamp waterways. Even if he was going upstream he might reach Two-Pond Run. Anyway, he would keep on. He was tired now, and pretty sleepy, too, and the rescue of his marooned companions seemed far less urgent than it had earlier. Nothing could happen to them, anyhow. Of course they wouldn’t find it very pleasant, spending the night up there in the hummocks, and they’d be kind of hungry――Pud paused. Gee, he was hungry himself, now that he came to think of it! Still, he wasn’t nearly so hungry as he was sleepy. He yawned widely.