ON THE TREMBLING BRIDGE
Once more the four chums came together at a given point, filled with a
desire to see with their own eyes the strange sights that were
transpiring continually all around them.
The excitement constantly grew in volume, and everywhere groups of men
and women, as well as children, could be seen discussing the latest news,
or it might be industriously trying to save their possessions from the
greedy river.
Many of the younger generation failed to realize the gravity of the
situation. All this bustle was in the nature of a picnic to them. They
shouted, and called to one another, as they ran hither and thither,
watching the unusual scenes. Many times they had to be warned of the
danger they ran when playing close to the swift current that was eddying
through the lower streets.
Steve Dowdy was always eager to collect the latest news. He had more
than once declared that he meant to be a reporter when he grew up, for he
practiced the art of cross-questioning people whenever he had a chance;
and Max, who had noticed how well he did this, more than once told him he
would make a good lawyer instead.
When he joined the others they fully expected that he would have
something new to tell them, nor were they mistaken.
"Last word is that the railroad has gone out of commission," Steve
announced.
"In the name of goodness, do you mean it's been washed away, where it
runs along the river?" exclaimed Bandy-legs, his face showing more or
less dismay.
"Well, I don't know that it's as bad as that," Steve admitted; "but the
water's up so deep over the tracks that orders have been given to abandon
all trains until there's a change."
"Which I should think would be a wise thing to do," Max remarked;
"because they couldn't tell but what they'd run into a gap, and a train
be lost. Railroads have troubles enough without taking such risks."
"But what if the river keeps booming along like this for a week?"
suggested Bandy-legs, prone to imagine things much worse than they were
in truth.
"Not much danger of that," ventured Steve; "but even then why should it
matter to us if trains couldn't run?"
"Huh! how long d'ye think the town of Carson could live without grub?"
was what the other flung at him. "Every day the visible food supply
would keep on getting lower and lower, with everything going out and
nothing coming in. And deliver me from running up against a regular
_famine_. A feller has got to eat if he wants to live, don't he?"
"You do, we know that, Bandy-legs, and so does Toby here," jeered Steve;
"but it strikes me you forget the farmer community when you talk about
our going hungry. A good many might be kept from coming into town with
loads, but there'd be enough to keep things moving along. What's the use
bothering about that; plenty of other things to keep you guessing. It'd
ease my mind a heap for instance if I just knew the girls had left that
house of Asa French down below, and taken to higher ground. Can't help
thinking they might be foolish enough to try and stay there till the
water got so high all around that only a boat could be of any use, and
they mightn't have one. I even tried to see if I could borrow a boat of
any kind, but you couldn't right now, for love or money. Everybody's
holding on to what they've got."
"W-w-well, when it's f-f-flooding like it is now, don't you reckon it's
the right thing to keep an ark, if so be you g-g-got one? Where'd old
Noah a been if he'd allowed himself to be tempted to b-b-bargain for his
b-b-boat when the rain started to come down? Wish I had even a canoe
myself; I'd feel easier a h-h-heap, let me tell you."
Toby was beginning to take the thing very seriously. He seldom laughed
now, and many of the rather pitiful sights he saw all around him made an
indelible impression on his mind.
"Worse luck we can't see all that's coming down the river," ventured
Steve, presently. "The water's getting so high that it's hard to find a
place where you can look out over the whole valley. And I've fetched my
camera along, too, hoping to snatch off a few pictures to remember this
flood by. Tell you what, fellows, I've got a good notion to go out on
the bridge, and snap off some views."
"Pretty risky!" suggested Max.
"They're warning everybody to keep away from the bridge," added
Bandy-legs, as he shook his head dubiously, yet seemed inclined to side
with Steve; for like all boys, the spirit of daring and love for
adventure lay strong within him.
To the surprise of the others Toby piped up just then in a strain they
had not imagined would appeal to him.
"That's what the t-t-timid ones keep on saying," he observed; "but I
d-d-don't think the old bridge'll get shaky till the current of the
r-r-river really hits up against the roadway hard. Now, mebbe some of
you've been awonderin' what made me fetch this coil of new clothes line
along, danglin' from my arm? W-w-want to k-k-know?"
"To be sure we do, Toby, so rattle it off, won't you?" said Steve.
"All r-r-right, I will," the accommodating Toby assured him. "Well, you
s-s-see, there's so many hencoops afloatin' along seems like there might
be a dog or a rooster settin' on top of one, and I thought if I had a
chance to get out on the b-b-bridge span I'd try and rope one of the
same. I've p-p-practiced throwing a lariat some, and I t-t-think I might
snatch somethin' from a watery g-g-grave."
The others laughed at the suggestion. In imagination they could see Toby
tossing his noosed rope wildly out over the rushing waters, and only to
make many a miss.
At the same time Steve chose to encourage him for reasons of his own.
With Bandy-legs hesitating, if only he could get Toby to support his
suggestion, there was a pretty good chance that conservative Max would
give in to superior numbers.
So Steve commenced to handle his little camera, which he had slung over
his shoulder with a stout strap.
"The sun don't shine, but it's pretty light right now at one o'clock," he
went on to say, meaningly; "and I'm dead sure I could pick up some dandy
pictures of the river, and also of poor old Carson, flood-bound.
Bandy-legs, how about you; won't you come along with Toby and me out on
the bridge?"
The appeal proved to be the finishing stroke, since Bandy-legs had been
balancing on the fence.
"All right, Steve, count on me; and, Max, say you'll go along too, if all
the rest of us do," he hastened to say.
Max laughed.
"Do you know what you make me think of, you fellows?" he told them;
"well, of the time Steve here went in swimming, when there was even a
suspicion of ice along the edge of the pond. I can see him now, up to
his neck, nearly frozen stiff with the chill, and his teeth rattling in
his head as he tried to grin, and called out to the rest of us: 'Come on
in, fellows; the water's fine!' But if my three chums are bent on taking
risks with that old bridge, I reckon I'll have to join the procession,
and go out there along with you. Besides, I've been thinking that we
might have a chance to do some rescue work, because any old time somebody
is apt to come down the swollen river hanging to a floating log or a
frame house. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened before now."
"Well, come on, and don't let's stand around here talking so long," Steve
urged, for he was nearly always in a great hurry, which fact had been the
main cause for his school mates dubbing him "Touch-and-Go-Steve."
As the four boys approached the bridge they must have felt more or less
qualms of nervous apprehension, because the prospect was appalling, with
the river up only a comparatively few feet below the centre of the span.
But each hesitated to let his companions see that he felt timid in the
least; and assuming a carelessness that he was far from feeling, Steve
was the first to set foot on the approach to the bridge that spanned the
Evergreen River.
Several men called out to warn them that it was dangerous, but no one
really attempted to stop them from walking out. As the water was already
commencing to lap the roadway at the end, they had to pick their steps;
but once out toward the middle it seemed as though confidence began to
return.
Pride kept all of the boys from allowing anything like a tremor to appear
in their voices when they exchanged remarks. At the same time all of
them felt the quivering of the structure, and could understand what a
mighty force was commencing to pluck at its supports. When these were
undermined, if such a thing should happen, the whole affair would go with
a rush, and they realized what that would mean.
Steve immediately busied himself in snapping off several pictures, posing
his chums so that they would enter into his views of the flood as seen
from the river bridge. In this interesting work he forgot the peril he
was running; while Max and Toby and Bandy-legs found plenty to do in
looking all around, and watching the strange spectacle of floating trees
or logs wedge up against the bridge at various places until they began to
form quite a barricade.
"That's what will tell against the bridge more than anything else," Max
remarked, as he pointed to where a tree was being pressed by the rush of
the water, so that it kept striking against the abutment on the side
toward Carson. "When a certain quantity of floating stuff begins to
exert all its push against the bridge it'll have to go. We've got to
keep our eyes open, boys, and be ready to skip out of here if we see
another big tree coming down."
"There's another hencoop, and, Toby, what do I see on the bridge but a
big Plymouth Rock rooster!" exclaimed Bandy-legs, excitedly, "so Johnny
get your gun, or else your rope, and let's see what sort of a cowboy you
c'n be."
Toby ran along the upper side of the bridge, and with his rope coiled
awaited a chance to let fly. The conditions were not as favorable as he
might have liked, for the railing seemed to be somewhat in the way; and
an object moving swiftly toward him did not offer any great hope for his
success in casting the lariat; but when the proper time had arrived he
bravely let fly.
"Whoop! see it drop right over the old rooster would you?" yelled
Bandy-legs; "pull as quick as you can, Toby! Aw! you're slow as molasses
in winter, and it just slipped over his back. And now he's running under
the bridge, and you won't have fricasseed chicken for supper to-night, as
you expected."
"B-b-but you all saw how I d-d-dropped the n-n-noose right over him,
didn't you? And that c-c-counts some. When I g-g-get the hang of the
thing I expect to do a heap b-b-better. Watch out for another hencoop,
Bandy-legs, that's a good feller. I'm sure enjoying myself first-rate."
"Well, looks to me like something coming along up there again," remarked
Bandy-legs, who had splendid eyesight, and was sometimes called "Eagle
Eye" by his comrades.
"A dog this time, seems like," suggested Steve, carelessly. "I wonder
now if I could get his picture when he comes closer? It'd be worth
keeping, just to show what sort of things you'll meet up with when
there's a big flood on. I reckon I'll try it anyhow; no damage done if I
make a foozle."
He hunted up a suitable place, where he thought the light would be most
serviceable, and then started to focus his camera on a spot which he
selected; when the drifting piece of wreckage reached that position it
would be at the proper distance for effective work, and he could press
the button with the belief that he had obtained a good picture.
Max was intently looking up the river.
All these things interested him, naturally, though deep down in his heart
he knew that they were taking big risks in remaining out on the bridge
when others more sensible or less adventurous carefully refrained from
trusting themselves to view the flood from so dangerous a standpoint.
The three other boys heard Max give utterance to a startled exclamation.
It was not his nature to betray excitement unless there was some very
good excuse for doing so, and consequently Steve turned his head to look
over his shoulder and ask: "What ails you, Max, old chum? The shaking
didn't feel any worse, did if? I'd hate some myself to go with the old
bridge, if she does take a notion to cut loose from her moorings, and
head down the valley; and, Max, if you reckon we'd better quit this
monkey business, and go ashore, why, I'll call it off, though I did want
to get this one picture the worst kind."
"Wait!" said Max, quickly; "we couldn't go now, no matter how much we
wanted to!"
"Oh! why not?" exclaimed Bandy-legs, looking anxious, as he fancied he
felt a new and sickening swaying to the bridge; and unconsciously he
gripped the railing while speaking, as though desirous of having
something substantial to hold on to.
"Because, unless I'm away off in my guess," said Max, positively, "that
object on that roof of a cabin you thought was a dog is a little child;
and we've got to try our level best to save it when the wreckage gets
down to the bridge!"
His words almost stunned the others. They stood and gazed at the swiftly
approaching floating object as though unable to believe their very eyes;
but soon Steve managed to find his voice, for he bellowed:
"Max, it is, for a fact, a poor little abandoned child, crouching there,
and like as not nearly frightened out of its life. Oh! I wonder what's
become of its mother and father? P'raps they've been drowned. Max, what
can we do to save it? Think as fast as ever you did in all your life.
I'd never get over it if we let that helpless child sweep under the
bridge like that rooster did. It'd haunt me the rest of my days. Max,
haven't you thought up a plan?"
"Yes, and it's the only way we can have a chance," replied the other,
quickly. "Here, let me have the noose end of your rope, Toby; I'm going
to slip it around under my arms. Then you three get hold, and I'll climb
over the railing here, just where that cabin roof is going to pass under.
Too bad that there's so much room, because it won't stick fast; so I must
drop down on the roof and grab the child. Everything depends on how you
can get me up again. It's all got to be done like a flash, you see. And
if the rope holds, I'll do my part, I promise you."
"Count on us, Max, and here's hoping you do get hold of the poor little
thing!" said Steve, who had laid his camera aside, the better to use both
hands.
They nerved themselves for the coming ordeal. Teeth were tightly
clenched, and every muscle summoned to do its full duty. Nor could the
emergency be long delayed, because that drifting wreckage of a cabin was
approaching them swiftly, borne on the wild current of the flood, and in
another ten seconds would have reached the middle of the span of the
bridge!