As it was, Nick was amazed to find it necessary to go a considerable
ways before he caught sight of the familiar pile of logs floating
buoyantly on the water, but he speedily reached them, and, drawing
himself on top, hunted for the long pole that he had used so many times
in navigating the pond.
But it was not there, and he sank back into the water, and, holding on
with his hands, used his feet vigorously to propel the raft toward the
bank, where he had left his loved sister but a short time before.
"I'll soon be there, Nellie," he called; "are you all right?"
This was a curious question to ask, though it was natural, perhaps, for
any boy, under similar circumstances, but Nick felt a pang of fear when
he repeated the call and did not receive any answer.
He put forth all the energy at his command, and steadily pushed the
float toward land. Now and then, while doing so, he shouted to his
sister, without hearing any reply.
"Can it be anything has happened to her?" he asked himself several times
as he peered through the gloom, unable to catch the outlines of brave
little Nellie.
CHAPTER XXXV.
WHAT FRIGHTENED NELLIE.
Nick Ribsam thought not of himself, in his anxiety for his sister. He
had left her but a few brief minutes before, sitting on the shore of the
lake, and now when he returned she was missing.
He had called to her repeatedly without receiving any answer, and when
he looked about him in the smoke and gloom, he could see nothing of her
loved figure.
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