“Can't you back off?” Hi heard her ask the boatman.
“Not without lightening her, Miss. And she may have smashed a plank3 up there, too. I dunno.”
The Western girl turned immediately to Hiram, who had now come to the bank's edge. She smiled at him charmingly, and her eyes danced. She evidently appreciated the fact that the young farmer had her at a disadvantage—and she had meant to snub him.
“I guess you'll have to help me again, Mr. Strong,” she said. “What will we do? Can you push out a plank to us, or something?”
“I'm afraid not, Miss Bronson,” he returned. “I could cut a pole and reach it to the boat; but you girls couldn't walk ashore4 on it.”
“Oh, dear! have we got to wade5?” cried one of Lettie's friends.
“You can't wade. It's too deep between the shore and the boat,” Hiram said, calmly.
“Then—then we'll stay here till the tide rises and dr-dr-drowns us!” wailed6 another of the girls, giving way to sobs7.
“Don't be a goose, Myra Carroll!” exclaimed Lettie. “If you waited here for the tide to rise you'd be gray-haired and decrepit8. The tide doesn't rise here. But maybe a spring flood would wash you away.”
At that the frightened one sobbed9 harder than ever. She was one of those who ever see the dark side of adventure. There was no hope on her horizon.
“I dunno what you can do for these girls,” said the man. “I'd git out and push off the boat, but I don't dare with them aboard.”
But Hiram's mind had not been inactive, if he was standing10 in seeming idleness. Sister tugged11 at his sleeve again and whispered:
“Have they got to stay there and drown, Hi?”
“I guess not,” he returned, slowly. “Let's see: this old sycamore leans right out over them. I can shin up there with the aid of the big grapevine. Then, if I had a rope——”
“Shall I run and get one?” demanded Sister, listening to him.
“Hullo!” exclaimed Hiram, speaking to the man in the boat.
“Well?” asked the fellow.
“Haven't you got a coil of strong rope aboard?”
“There's the painter,” said the man.
“Toss it ashore here,” commanded Hiram.
“Oh, Hiram Strong!” cried Lettie. “You don't expect us to walk tightrope12, do you?” and she began to giggle13.
“No. I want you to unfasten the end of the rope. I want it clear—that's it,” said Hiram. “And it's long enough, I can see.”
“For what?” asked Sister.
“Wait and you'll see,” returned the young farmer, hastily coiling the rope again.
He hung it over his shoulder and then started to climb the big sycamore. He could go up the bole of this leaning tree very quickly, for the huge grapevine gave him a hand-hold all the way.
“Whatever are you going to do?” cried Lettie Bronson, looking up at him, as did the other girls.
“Now,” said Hiram, in the first small crotch of the tree, which was almost directly over the stranded14 launch, “if you girls have any pluck at all, I can get you ashore, one by one.”
“What do you mean for us to do, Hiram?” repeated Lettie.
The young farmer quickly fashioned a noose15 at the end of the line—not a slipnoose, for that would tighten16 and hurt anybody bearing upon it. This he dropped down to the boat and Lettie caught it.
“Get your head and shoulders through that noose, Miss Bronson,” he commanded. “Let it come under your arms. I will lift you out of the boat and swing you back and forth17—there's none of you so heavy that I can't do this, and if you wet your feet a little, what's the odds18?”
“Oh, dear! I can never do that!” squealed19 one of the other girls.
“Guess you'll have to do it if you don't want to stay here all night,” returned Lettie, promptly20. “I see what you want, Hiram,” she added, and quickly adjusted the loop.
“Now, when you swing out over the bank, Sister will grab you, and steady you. It will be all right if you have a care. Now!” cried Hiram.
Lettie Bronson showed no fear at all as he drew her up and she swung out of the boat over the swiftly-running current. Hiram laid along the tree-trunk in an easy position, and began swinging the girl at the end of the rope, like a pendulum21.
The river bank being at least three feet higher than the surface of the water; he did not have to shift the rope again as he swung the girl back and forth.
Sister, clinging with her left hand to the grapevine, leaned forward and clutched Lettie's hand. When she seized it, Sister backed away, and the swinging girl landed upright upon the bank.
“Oh, that's fun!” Lettie cried, laughing, loosing herself from “the loop. Now you come, Mary Judson!”
Thus encouraged they responded one by one, and even the girl who had broken down and cried agreed to be rescued by this simple means. The boatman then, after removing his shoes and stockings and rolling up his trousers, stepped out upon the sunken rock and pushed off the boat.
But it was leaking badly. He dared not take aboard his passengers again, but turned around and went down stream as fast as he could go so as to beach the boat in a safe place.
“Now how'll we get back to Scoville?” cried one of Lettie's friends. “I can never walk that far.”
Sister had dropped back, shyly, behind Hiram, when he descended22 the tree. She had aided each girl ashore; but only Lettie had thanked her. Now she tugged at Hiram's sleeve.
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CHAPTER XVIII. A HEAVY CLOUD
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