Free The Adventures of Jack and Billy Joe by A. Jeff Tisdale

four or five boys in the water having a ball.
    “If they can do it, we can do it,” Billy Joe said.
    “Nah,” Jack warned, “it won’t matter if there’s one or a hundred, Mr. Jackson will punish ’em all. He enjoys that.”
    “Yeah, you’re right,” Billy Joe conceded. “No sense getting cut outta the fun just for a few minutes of swimming.”
    The tone of the boys playing in the water changed noticeably. There was an added sound of fear.
    Jack and Billy Joe looked to see what the cause of this change was.
    All the boys were looking down the river and shouting. What they were saying was unintelligible but it appeared that someone had been swept away.
    “I think somebody is floating down the river and can’t swim back,” Billy Joe said.
    Jack turned and ran back to the sleeping campers near the shelter. He ran directly to Mr. Ward and shook his shoulder. “Mr. Ward, Mr. Ward,” he said.
    “What’s the matter, Jack?” Ward asked, instantly awake.
    “I think one of the boys has washed off down the river, sir,” Jack explained.
    “What, what’s he doin’ in the river?”
    “I don’t know, sir, but somebody better get him back. There’s snakes and alligators in that river,” Jack said.
    Ward jumped up and ran over to Louis Jackson and shook him.
    “What’s the matter?” Jackson asked sleepily.
    “A boy’s in trouble at the river, I guess.” Ward gave the best explanation he had.
    Jackson jumped up and ran to the clay bank overlooking the river.
    Recognizing one of the boys, Jackson yelled, “What’s the matter, George?”
    “Tom Nelson swam out to the center and couldn’t get back,” George said. “He floated off down the river.”
    “Can you see him?” Jackson asked.
    “No, sir, he’s gone way down the river,” George replied.
    “What are we gonna do?” Ward asked Jackson.
    “One of us needs to take a couple of the boys and go down the riverbank as far as we can to find him,” Jackson said, still clearing his head of sleep. “The other needs to get in the car and drive to the next bridge crossing and pull him out in case he goes that far.”
    “The next bridge is at least five miles downriver,” Ward said. “If he stays afloat that long, he’s a better swimmer than I thought he was.”
    “That’s all we can do,” Jackson said. “You go—I’ll walk the river.”
    “Okay,” Ward said as he turned toward the car.
    Jackson picked two boys—big strong guys who looked as if they could handle themselves.
    “The rest of you,” Jackson said, “stay out of the river and stay out of trouble. We’ll be back with Tom soon.”
    And they walked into the woods south along the river.
    A quiet had fallen over the boys waiting. They each imagined the worst, depending on his own inner fears.
    “Boy, I wish we had Mr. Ezell’s boat,” Jack said.
    “Yeah, and it’s not all that far from here,” Billy Joe said.
    “Hey, you know, it’s not,” Jack said. “Why don’t we ride our bicycles over there and get the boat?” Jack suggested. “We could float back here in no time, especially if we paddled hard.”
    “Yeah, Mr. Ezell’s house is right along the way,” Billy Joe said. “We can tell him on the way.”
    The boys ran to their bicycles and started off toward the main road. At the main road, they turned toward the bridge and Mr. Ezell’s driveway—actually a rut road about a mile long that Mr. Ezell had made driving through the woods to his cabin.
    The boys made good time to the driveway and down it to Ezell’s house. They knocked on his door but got no answer.
    “He won’t mind if we take his boat. We use it all the time and he never says no.”
    They raced to the boat landing—just an easy sloping bank of the river where you would drag the wooden boat out.
    They pushed the boat out into the river and jumped in as they had done so many times. The roughly cut “paddles” were in the boat and the boys wasted no time in digging into the river to hurry the boat