Problem with ending -- did I miss something?

Caution: possible spoilers.

I watched the last part on DVD again, because the last part did not make sense to me but the plot is well-crafted otherwise so I'm inclined to think *I* missed something.

When Chris, the girl and Tim run from Deel,the camera cuts to a scene where Tim and the girl are crouched down behind a bank or something, and Chris goes into the river to taunt Deel. After their struggle, Deel crawls back onto the bank; in the deleted scenes there's a discussion between Tim and Deel where both are sitting there on the bank by the river; the regular film omits this discussion piece.

Before staggering from the water, Deel appears to have drowned Chris, who does not appear in the camera view, nor do we hear any splashing or whatever that would indicate where Chris might have gone. Instead some time goes by while Deel and Tim talk, or Deel gradually expires; there's a dreamlike view of Chris by the ocean, then it cuts to Chris in hospital.

Is there any suggestion of how Chris got out of the water, or got rescued? Did the girl go after him? Tim was just sitting there calmly discussing the meaning of infinity!.

I must have missed something. My DVD is from the library; I'm wondering if something got spliced out?

The reason I wonder is I once saw a version of Easy Rider that was edited to remove all references to drugs and consequently the film made absolutely NO sense. So I am wondering if something was edited here.