THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHIE REYNOLDS

The boat continued to move downriver at a faster and faster pace, moving at an astonishing rate of speed. The boys looked at each other with fearful eyes, as the hard rain continued to fall upon them. They were frightened now, more frightened than they had ever been in their lives. The wrath of nature had wreaked severe hardship upon them, and they were not prepared for it. Now they were in a fierce struggle for their lives.

Hank looked down at the accumulating water rolling around in the boat. “Water’s building up again!” he yelled.

Quickly, the boys began bailing water out of the boat together, just as they had done earlier. In a few minutes, they got most if it out, and returned to trying to maneuver the boat again with their paddles. They presently gave up on trying to get over near either riverbank. Now they were just concerned with attempting to maneuver the boat around the worsening white water sections in the river, so the boat would not turn over. They managed this reasonably well for a short distance and began to feel confident, as the rain lessened and visibility improved.

Then, suddenly, Hank saw something dangerous up ahead, coming on fast. “Hey, you guys! Look up, fast! We’re heading toward a bridge, or something, up there!”

Archie and Billy looked downriver and saw a low-lying wooden footbridge, of the makeshift variety, hanging out across the river. It was barely above the waterline because of the rising water level from the storm.

“Oh, no!” Archie shouted, “I don’t know if we can make it under that thing! We might crash into it!”

The boat was moving faster and faster toward the footbridge now, traveling at an awesome rate of speed. With desperate eyes, the boys looked across the bridge from one end to the other. They noticed the bridge sagged a little toward the middle of the river. That meant the amount of clearance underneath it was slightly more toward the right and left riverbanks. Since the boys were already drifting somewhat closer to the left riverbank, they desperately started steering the boat toward that direction. In less than a minute, they luckily managed to maneuver the boat a few yards over that way.

“Now I can see the spot we’re heading for!” Archie yelled out. “You see it, guys?”

“Yeah!” both Billy and Hank hollered.

The spot had about a four-foot clearance between the water and the bottom of the bridge. The height of their boat was slightly over two feet off the water. That gave the boys slightly less than two feet to make it underneath the bridge. It would be a tight squeeze, but if they ducked down onto the floor of the boat as the boat passed underneath, they realized they could make it through. The only problem was that the rough water in the river kept causing the boat to bob and shift. If the boat happened to bob up just as they were about to pass under the bridge, they would crash into it. This would probably cause the boat to puncture and sink, or perhaps turn over. Such an occurrence would be a disaster.

The boat was now only twenty yards from the bridge and closing fast.