In the meantime, the thief had picked up a
pair of oars and was using them in a clumsy fashion which showed
plainly that he was not used to handling them.
"If we had a boat we could catch him easily," observed Tom. Then
his eyes fell upon the fallen tree. "I have an idea! Let us try
to get across on that! I won't mind a wetting if only we can get
Dick's watch back."
"Yes, yes; just the thing!" put in his elder brother quickly.
All hands ran down to the fallen tree, which was about a foot in
diameter and not over twenty-five or thirty feet in length. It
lay half in the water already, and it was an easy matter to shove
it off.
"We can't do much without oars or a pole," said Tom. "Wait a
moment," and he ran back to where he had seen another fallen tree,
a tall, slender maple sapling. He soon had this in hand; and,
cleared of its branches, it made a capital pole. Dick and Sam sat
astride of the tree in the water, and Tom stood against an upright
branch and shoved off. The river was not deep, and he kept on
reaching bottom without difficulty.
By this time the tramp was halfway across the stream, which was
flowing, rapidly and carrying both boat and tree down toward a
bend quarter of a mile below.
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