Ed and Bobby wake up in the boardinghouse the morning after the trip, while Lewis remains in the hospital. The sheriff’s department raises some questions about their story: Bobby told them that Drew fell out of the “green canoe,” but that canoe was found upstream from where Drew was supposedly lost. Ed and Bobby decide to say that the green canoe overturned before Drew fell into the river and that Lewis was injured when the green canoe initially tipped over. The group then all loaded into one canoe carrying too much gear, plus the injured Lewis. They further decide to tell the sheriff that the four men in one canoe hit rough rapids and lost control of the boat, which was when Drew fell overboard.

Bobby worries that he will be questioned separately from Ed and will not be able to keep his story straight. Ed tells Bobby he doesn’t think anyone was listening to Bobby’s version of events when he spoke to the local law officer after their rescue. Bobby agrees with this, and Ed further reassures him by reminding him how difficult it would be to search the river; motorized boats could not make it up the rapids, and it would take too much time and effort to scale the cliff down to the river.