GATHERING THEM IN.
Now, as Billy loved horses, he was ready to applaud the plan suggested
by Hugh.
“It ought to be easy to open the door of the stable,” he observed. “Like
as not the horses have broken loose from their mangers long before now,
with the place filling with water and giving them a scare. But if they
haven’t, why I’ll guarantee to get in there some way and cut them free.”
“That must be the stable yonder,” called out Stallings, who had heard
what was passing between his friends.
“Yes,” Hugh assented, “it’s got a stone basement, he told me, which
would be apt to hold out for quite some time against the water, because
there’s little current up here, and only the sweep of the wind to fear.”
The launch was steered so as to come up alongside that part of the
stable where they could see the door was situated. This was now half
under water, and if found to be locked Hugh would have to use the key
the farmer had thought to put in his hand before they left the land.
“First time a boat ever called at their door, I bet you!” said Tip. “I
know the folks, and have been here at their place more than once.”
He and Monkey Stallings held the launch steady while Billy tried the
door.
“Locked, Hugh, and here’s the padlock six inches under water,” he
remarked, in a disgusted tone. “We’ll have to try and break in, I
reckon.”
“No, take this key the owner gave me,” Hugh explained. “Be careful not
to let it slip out of your grip, or we will be in a hole.”
Billy promised to be cautious, and after a little fumbling managed to
undo the big padlock.
“Wait and we’ll get the boat out of the way so the door can be drawn
back,” Tip Lange told him. “Then the poor animals can wade or swim out
as they please, if it happens they’re loose.”
A number of whinnies had come from inside the stable, showing that the
imprisoned horses recognized the presence of human beings, and perhaps
understood that a way would be opened for their exit.
“I can hear them thrashing about a good deal,” Monkey announced, “which
I would take to mean they might be free from their halters and hitching
ropes.”
Billy maintained his grip on the door, and as the others pushed the
launch slowly along an opening began to appear. Hardly had the door
swung halfway open before a horse’s head appeared in sight, and out came
an animal, swimming like a muskrat, only its head, neck, and a small
portion of its back being visible.
“There’s the second old chap, all right!” exclaimed Billy, as another
head followed the tail of the first horse. “Did he say there were only
two of them, Hugh?”
“That’s the extent of the misery here,” came the prompt reply. “But look
over yonder, will you, at the chickens perched on that coop; yes, and
turkeys, too. Poor things, they’re apt to be pretty hungry before they
get a meal again.”
“Oh! what’s that swimming around over there?” demanded Tip. “I do
believe it’s a dog; yes, and Farmer Jones did have a fine watch dog. I
remember he had him chained to a kennel somewhere about there.”
“We can’t pass by without trying to give the poor fellow a chance for
his life,” Hugh declared, as he headed toward the spot where the moving
object had been observed.
“He sees us now,” said Tip. “But, say, the poor fellow is so rank tired
swimming that he just can’t give even a yelp, let alone a joyful bark.
Chances are he sat on top of his kennel till the water got so deep he
had to swim; and as he’s fastened with a chain he’d soon have been
drowned if we hadn’t come along.”
When they came up to the dog Tip spoke kindly to him, calling him Carlo.
Then he took hold and managed in some way to unfasten the animal’s
collar. Of course this freed Carlo from the detaining chain that had
come very near being his death. Tip and Monkey Stallings assisted the
big dog to clamber over the side.
The very first thing Carlo did was to scatter showers of drops all
around him, which called for loud protestations from the boys. But after
that the rescued dog seemed to want to show his affection by licking any
one of the boys’ hands he could find. What better proof could they have
of his gratitude than that?
“There are those horses swimming after us,” said Billy. “If we keep on,
we’ll be like a traveling circus coming to town, with all the queer
things we rescue. I suppose now the next job is to gather in all those
fowls there, eh, Hugh?”
“Well, we’ll have to forego that pleasure just now, Billy. There may be
human beings in need of our coming. I’m afraid the chickens and turkeys
will have to take their chances.”
“If any hungry coons happen along this way, the chickens won’t be apt to
die a lingering death, or one by drowning either. A twist of the neck
would see their finish,” said Billy.
“I don’t like the way those horses keep swimming after us, Hugh,”
protested Tip.
“Oh! they want to be sociable,” laughed Billy, “but we’re leaving them
in the lurch faster now, and soon they’ll give it up. When that happens
they’ll most likely swim to the nearest shore, eh, Hugh?”
“No question about it,” the pilot assured him. “Horses and cows have
some sense about them. Even on a black night they’d know where the shore
lay. It must be what we call intuition, and which takes the place of
reasoning powers with animals and birds.”
“Yes, and with frogs and toads, too,” said Billy. “I’ve picked up a toad
many a time and thrown him as far out in the lake as I could; but let me
tell you I never yet saw him strike out; he’d head for the shore every
time, swimming for all he was worth, like he thought a black bass would
snap him up.”
“What time do you think it is?” asked Monkey Stallings from up in the
bow where he was keeping a lookout—he called it the “crow’s nest,”
because he had read that on board a ship that is where a man is
stationed to sweep the horizon with his marine glasses from time to
time.
“Just three o’clock,” replied Hugh, and as there was no sun to tell him,
he must have glanced at his watch in order to say it so positively.
“We’ve got two hours or so more of daylight to work in,” Tip remarked.
“Then we’ll have the time of our lives crawling back home in the dark,
without any of us knowing our bearings in the night.”
“Oh, it isn’t going to be quite that bad,” sang out Monkey. “Uncle
always keeps plenty of lights aboard. There’s even a reflector that can
be hung up here in the bow. It is one of those acetylene gas affairs,
and makes a dazzling white light.”
“Good enough!” cried Billy. “If we’re hard pushed we can keep up our
rescue work into the night. I’d hate to think we’d left a single poor
chap to drown when we might exert ourselves a little extra and save
him.”
“There, the horses have given us up as a bad job, and they’ve turned
toward the land, you see!” announced Tip triumphantly. As he patted the
head of Carlo, the dog pushed up close alongside him.
“Sorry to say, it’s raining again,” added Billy. “You can see it on the
water.”
“That’s a bad thing all around for those who are without a shelter,”
Hugh observed. “Of course it matters very little to us, because we have
a canopy overhead, and curtains if we want to use them. I’m afraid the
end is a long way off still.”
“But from now on the rise isn’t apt to be so rapid, you see,” Tip
continued. “It takes a lot more water to make an inch when it’s spread
over such a big lot of territory. Here are miles and miles covered, and
it’s the same way in other low places. Half of the country up in this
region must be afloat.”
Pushing on, they approached what seemed to be a nest of houses and
outbuildings built for sociability’s sake at the adjoining corners of
the farms, so as to make a little community in the dull winter time.
“Looks like there are some people left there, because I saw a signal
flutter!” announced Monkey Stallings.
“It’s unusually low ground around here,” said Tip. “I remember the place
well, and they have the finest garden and truck patches of any about
town when things are going on naturally. But the whole place looks now
like it had been struck by lightning, and then by a cloudburst. The
Williams live in the near house, and you can see that the water is up
over the top of the lower story. There’s some one on the rooftree waving
to us.”
“But I saw a white thing moving in that tree nearby,” declared Billy,
“and if you listen you’ll hear them screeching right now.”
“Help! help! we’re all drowning! Oh! hurry and come to save us!”
Tip was seen to be smiling.
“Say, I know who that is, all right,” he told the others. “There’s a
queer little old woman at the Williams house, the sassiest and quickest
with her tongue you ever did hear, and they say she’s that set in her
ways nobody ever can make her do a thing she’d opposed to. Yes, that
must be Miss Maria screeching, and she’s perched up in that tree, all
right, like a guinea hen. We’re going to have a fine time of it getting
_her_ down, let me tell you, if she happens to be afraid of the limb
breaking.”
When the launch drew up alongside the house it was found that three
persons had perched on the ridgepole of the roof, and were clinging
there in great distress of body and mind. One of them was a brawny farm
hand, another a heavy-set woman, while the third was a small negro.
The last immediately slipped down the slope of the roof and managed to
squirm aboard the boat, as though not meaning to let this fine chance
escape him. It was something of a task to get the big woman safely down;
but Monkey Stallings volunteered to climb up with a clothes line and
make some sort of a “check,” so that with the help of the strong hired
man she was finally successfully taken aboard.
“Is that Miss Maria in the tree there?” Tip asked the man, after Hugh
had learned that there were no others about the house needing
assistance.
“Jest who it is,” was the answer of the hired man. “She got skeered
’baout the house right in the start, an’ sez it was apt to be kerried
away, which a tree wouldn’t because it’s got roots. I helped her get up
among the branches, but they hain’t be’n a minute sense thet she hain’t
kept whoopin’ it up. And haow she’s a-goin’ to be took daown beats me.”
The launch was soon under the tree, and sure enough trouble began
immediately. The little old woman was perched fairly high up, though
even at that she doubtless often imagined the rising flood was touching
her dangling feet. She declared she was afraid to move so as to come
down. Monkey went up to assist her, but she continued to cling
desperately to her limb and say she was afraid.
At Hugh’s suggestion Monkey even carried up the rope, and, passing it
over a limb above her head, fastened a loop under her arms. This was to
inspire her with confidence; but she kept her grip, and gave them all
manner of trouble.
“I warned you what you’d run up against,” chuckled Tip. “I know the lady
of old. When she sets her mind it sticks! Serve her right if we sailed
away and left her up there in her old tree to camp out.”
“Well, we can’t do that,” said Hugh, frowning. “They say that if the
mountain won’t come to you, it’s up to you to go to the mountain. We’re
going to get her down, and that right away. And, Billy, I’m going to
leave that part of the job to you. The rest hang on to the rope, and
keep it taut, so she won’t fall and get hurt. We’ll remove her support,
which is the only way. Here, Billy, you’re a good hand with a hatchet;
climb up there and cut that limb close to the tree. Never mind what she
says to you. Some people don’t know what’s good for them, and even have
to be saved against their will. Now, up with you, and get busy, Billy
boy.”