CHAPTER V
THE RESCUE
"Tell us what to do, Thad, and count on us to follow you!" called outGiraffe, rising manfully to the occasion; though to tell the honesttruth he looked pretty "white around the gills," as Step Hen remarkedlater on, when they all found time to compare experiences.
"Just stick to your seats, and don't bother!" was the quick reply Thadsent back.
"Then there ain't any danger?" demanded Davy, drawing the only decentbreath he had dared indulge in since that first alarm.
"Not a bit!" called Allan, cheerily.
"And we ain't goin' to have to swim for it then?" Step Hen went on.
"Not unless you feel like taking a bath," replied Thad asked.
"But what happened to our engine?" asked Davy.
"And will we have to pole, or row, the rest of the trip?" proceededGiraffe. "I see our finish if that comes around so early in the cruise.Wow! me to hike through the woods afoot, when it hits a fellow as hardas this."
"Me too!" sighed Step Hen.
"Oh! don't get excited, boys," remarked Thad, with a broad smile; "nodanger of anything like that happening to us just yet. I was halfexpecting something along these lines to happen; and now that it has,we'll fix that part for keeps. It won't come around again, I promiseyou that."
"Which isn't saying something else won't," grumbled Giraffe. "The blameold tub is just about ready to go to pieces on us, the first chance shegets; and that's what I think."
"Not so bad as that, Giraffe," remonstrated Thad. "This engine has beena great one in its day."
"Yes, but that day was about away, back in the time of Stephenson,"continued the tall scout, who, once he began to complain, could only beshut off with the greatest difficulty.
Everybody seemed to laugh at that, it was so ridiculous; but as Thad wasalready busily engaged in examining the engine their spirits seemed torise a little.
"Hey! ain't anybody agoin' to help me in?" piped up a small voice justthen, accompanied by a splashing sound.
The boys exchanged looks, and then followed nods, as though like a flashthey saw the chance to play something of a Joke on the comrade who wasthus appealing for aid.
"Hello! where's the other fellow?" exclaimed Allan, as though he hadcounted noses, and found one missing.
"That's so, where can he be?" echoed Thad.
"Who's missing?" Thad, went on to say.
"Bob White was only here we'd have him call the toll and find out.There used to be six kids the bunch."
"It must be Bumpus!" declared Giraffe, solemnly.
"You're right!" said a spluttering voice from some unseen place.
"The poor old silly thing, he just jumped right over into the waterwithout saying Jack Robinson!" Step Hen observed, in such a sad voiceyou would have thought he was having the tears streaming down hischeeks, when in truth there was a wide grin settled there.
"Oh! then he must surely be drowned," Davy went on to add, in a voicethat seemed to be choking with emotion--of some sort.
"I thought I saw the lake rising, and that accounts for it," venturedStep Hen. "When a fellow as big as our poor chum goes down, hedisplaces just an equal part of water. However will we tell his folksthe sad news?"
"Ain't you nearly done all that stuff?" demanded an impatient voice, andthere was a rocking motion to the boat; after which a very red facesurmounted by a shock of fiery hair, now well plastered down, hove insight. "Hey! somebody get a move on, and give me a hand. I'm soakedthrough and through, and I tell you my clothes weigh nigh on threetons."
The five boys pretended to be hardly able to believe their eyes. Theythrew up their hands, and stared hard at the apparition.
"Why, sure, I believe it's our long lost chum, Bumpus!" gasped Giraffe.
"Mebbe it's his ghost come back to haunt us the rest o' out lives.Mebbe we better knock him on the head; they say that's the only sure wayto settle spooks," and as Step Hen said this terrible thing, he startedto pick up the long-handled boat book.
"No, you don't, Step Hen!" shrilled Bumpus, who was really frightened aslong as he remained in the water, for he believed it must be a mile deepso far out from land. "You just put that pole down, and get hold of myarm here. I tell you I'm tired of being in soak so long, and I want tocome aboard so's to get some dry duds on. Make 'em behave, Thad, can'tyou? I'm getting weak holding on here all this while; and pretty soonI'll have to let go. Then there will be a ghost, sure, to haunt thiscrowd. Ain't you coming to assist a fellow scout in distress?"
Realizing that the joke had gone far enough the scout-master himselfsprang forward to give poor Bumpus the assistance he craved.
There was no lack of help after that, Step Hen even made use of the boathook to take hold of some part of the wet scout's clothes; and with amighty "heave-o!" they dragged him, puffing, and shedding gallons ofwater, on to the deck of the stalled power-boat. Here he lay for aminute or two "to drain," as Giraffe remarked, but soon feeling chilled,Bumpus began to hunt for his clothes-bag in order to get something dryto put on.
As he did not have a complete outfit for a change, the other fellowshelped out; but while his soaked khaki suit was drying, hanging here andthere so the sun could do the business, the fat scout presented alaughable appearance, since of course none of the things that had beenso generously loaned him began to fit his stout figure.
However, since Bumpus was by nature a jolly chap, he quickly saw thehumor of the thing. This was after he had become warmed up fairly well,when he could sit and watch those who were tinkering with the brokenengine, and tell what his feelings were as he sprang so hurriedly overinto the big lake.
It made him shiver, though, to look around at that sea of water, andrealize what an exceedingly reckless boy he had been.
"Next time anything happens, me to stick to the old boat, even if I goup a mile high in the air!" he declared, raising his right handsolemnly, as though taking a vow.
"Have your wings ready, Bumpus, and you'll be all right, because you canfly," said Giraffe; and that provoked another laugh; because Bumpus,once upon a time, being very ambitious to learn how to swim, hadpurchased a pair of those "White Wings," which are simply bags made ofwaterproof cloth that can be inflated, and used after the manner of lifepreservers; so that he had had heaps of fun poked at him on account ofhis "wings."
So a full hour passed.
Some of the boys were growing impatient, and to relieve the monotony,Thad managed to call the attention of Giraffe to the fact that it lackedonly ten minutes of high noon.
That was enough.
"I thought I was feeling pretty weak!" ex-claimed the tall scout,rubbing his stomach sympathetically, "and no wonder, with breakfast sofar back I've even clean forgot what I had. Come along, boys, let's getbusy with lunch."
"The rest of you can attend to that," said Thad, satisfied that his planhad worked; "and by the time you are ready to call us, we'll have thisjob all done, so we can start her going."
That was cheering news, and the rest immediately set to work with awill. There was a little stove aboard that used gasoline for fuel, andwith this it seemed as though they ought to be able to do all thecooking they wanted when away from land. Of course should they have theopportunity, they meant to go ashore many times, and have one of theold-fashioned camp-fires, around which they had sat so many times in thepast, when on their outings.
Before long the smell of cooking that filled the air told that thelaborers were making a success of the warm lunch business. Bumpus inparticular seemed fairly wild for things to get done.
"I tell you, I just can't seem to get any warmth inside me," hecomplained when Step Hen took him to task for showing such unusualimpatience. "That water was as cold as Greenland, and went rightthrough me. I want my coffee, and I know when I want it."
"Guess your being so badly scared had a heap to do with it," remarkedGiraffe.
"Perhaps so, Giraffe," replied the fat scout, meekly; "I admit that Iwas frightened out of a year's gr
owth, because I once dreamed I wasburned in just such an accident as a boat taking fire. But how aboutyou, Giraffe? The first time my head came up above the coming of thedeck I saw your face, and say, talk to me about a gravestone beingwhite, that wasn't anything alongside your phiz."
"You don't say!" jeered the tall scout, though he looked conscious ofthe fact that his face was now as red as a beet.
"And chances are that you didn't jump the same way I did because youwere scared so bad you just couldn't move a finger," Bumpus went on,seeing his advantage.
"Thad!" called out Giraffe, scorning to pay attention to the thrust.
"All right!" answered the other.
"Lunch ready!" Giraffe went on to say.
"And so is our job done," saying this Thad I gave the crank a quickturn, upon which there was a quick response; for the merry popping ofthe engine greeted the anxious ears of the young cruisers.
"Hurrah!" shouted Bumpus, who was feeling fine, now that he had givenGiraffe a return jab, after having it rubbed in so hard by the tallscout.
The Chippeway Belle was already moving rapidly through the water, risingand falling on the waves that came out of the southwest; and as the sixlads gathered around to do justice to the spread that was to serve astheir first meal afloat, they once more saw things in a cheery light,for all seemed going well with them.