THE FALL OF A FOREST KING
"Thave me!" moaned the unhappy Tommy, but her voice was lost in the volume
of sound that fairly overwhelmed the occupants of the tent.
Almost at the instant that the first alarm had reached her ears, Harriet
Burrell recognized the nature of the sound. She had heard it before though
in a lesser degree. A tree was falling. She remembered a tall aged pine
that stood a short distance to the south of the tent. Between the tree and
the tent was a fairly open space, that was filled principally with
saplings and scrub undergrowth. Harriet in that moment understood, she
thought, that the heavy downpour of rain had weakened the hold of the aged
roots of the tree in the ground. The heavy wind blowing against the old
pine had been too much for the weakened roots. The tree was falling with
mighty crashings and reports that sounded like the explosions of firearms.
To run, Harriet believed might be attended with serious consequences to
them, for the long limbs of the tree were penetrating the tent roof
before she had fairly gotten her companions underneath the cots. The tent
was swept down as Harriet was diving under the bed. She realized that if
the full force of the trunk fell on the cots nothing could save the girls
beneath them. Still, Harriet did not believe the tree could fall so flat
as that. Its limbs, she thought, would support its trunk, keeping the
latter from falling flat on the ground.
Her three companions screamed with terror. Harriet was silent. She was
listening to the terrifying sounds, straining every nerve to the task,
fully expecting to be blotted out of existence at any second. She felt the
first result of the falling tent when a flood of water that had rained
down on the tent floor splashed into her face and over her body.
Everything seemed to cave in. Some of the larger limbs of the tree struck
the floor of the tent so close to the cots that the girls under them were
paralyzed with fear for a few awful seconds.
It seemed to them that the crashings and crunchings never would cease. But
they finally did. The girls then realized that the air was close and that
it was insufferably hot where they were.
"Is--is it all over?" gasped Cora.
"Yes, I hope so," answered Harriet in a matter of fact voice.
"Wha-at was it?" questioned Patricia in a smothered tone.
"The old pine tree fell. It was fortunate for us that we were in the
centre of the tent, for the trunk of the tree is kept from us by the
branches that are resting in the tent and on the ground at each side. But
girls, we must get out of here. Is any one of you hurt?"
The girls replied in the negative. How to get free of the tent was a
problem. The canvas roof was drawn taut over their haven of safety. The
air in their strange prison was getting very close.
"Oh, let's get out of this awful place," moaned Cora.
"We must wait a little," answered Harriet. "You lie perfectly still. I
will try to get some fresh air in here. Oh, I wish I had a knife," she
added as her groping hands came in contact with the canvas over which she
was searching for some little opening into which she could insert a finger
and tear the canvas. A moment later Harriet uttered a glad little
exclamation. She had found the opening that she was searching for. She
ripped the canvas after great effort, for the cloth was tough. Then to her
dismay she found a great fold of the canvas on the other side of the
opening thus made. All her labor had been fruitless.
Harriet raised her voice in a shout for assistance. The cry was muffled
and could not possibly have reached far. Their positions were growing more
and more desperate. Harriet Burrell's three companions were so firmly held
by the weight of the cots over them, that they were barely able to move.
Harriet being near the edge of the heap had a little more freedom. Of this
she was taking full advantage, wriggling desperately to enlarge the space
about her, seeking here and there for an opening through which she might
crawl in order to make a way for her companions, who were now crying
hysterically. Patricia, however, was more calm than any of the others save
Harriet herself.
All at once, the girl became conscious of a confused murmur of voices that
seemed to come from some distance away. She shouted again and again. At
last her calls were answered.
"Help is coming, girls," she cried in an encouraging voice. "Keep up your
courage."
"H-a-r-r-i-e-t?" wailed a voice. "Are you there?"
"Yes, Jane."
Then she heard the voices of Hazel and Margery. The latter two were half
crazed with fear for Harriet. The next time Jane cried out she was nearer
to the imprisoned girls.
"Call to me, darlin', so that I may know where you are," she shouted.
"We are right in the middle of the heap under the tent," answered Harriet.
"None of us is hurt. Is any one else hurt?"
"One girl was badly bruised. But oh, this is too bad. I'm coming. No, I
can't get any closer. What shall I do?" wailed Jane.
"Get something to cut away this canvas as soon as you can get to it. We
are smothering," returned Harriet.
"Jasper is going to cut the limbs of the tree away," answered Jane.
"No, no, no!" shouted Harriet. "He must not do that He will have the trunk
down on us and then we shall all be crushed. Have him try to reach us by
cutting away only the smaller branches of the tree, but don't let him cut
off any of the larger limbs. Tell him to hurry for we shall soon smother
in here. Watch him, Jane, to see that he doesn't do anything to increase
our danger."
"I'll watch him, my darling" returned Jane. "Oh, what a mess! What a
mess!"
Mrs. Livingston had caused the general alarm to be sounded, guardians
being ordered to have every available lamp in the camp lighted and brought
to the scene. Jane's, however, was the commanding force. Carrying a
lantern she took the directing of the rescue into her own hands, ordering
Jasper and the girls much as her father in other days had bossed gangs of
men.
First of all the canvas of the tent was cut near to where the four girls
lay. Then at Jane's suggestion the smaller branches of the tree were
carefully cut away about them to give room for the work of assisting the
four girls from their perilous position. By this time Jane and Harriet
were exchanging humorous little remarks, keeping up a running fire of
comment and trying to make light of their dangerous predicament. Cora and
Tommy were trembling so that when they did speak, their words were
scarcely intelligible to the girl who was coming to their rescue.
Patricia, however, was silent.
"That's enough, Jasper," commanded Jane at last. "Now hold the lantern."
All at once there was an ominous creaking and snapping directly above
where they lay.
"I'm being crushed!" screamed Cora.
Harriet had heard the sound. She knew the meaning of it, too. Some part of
the tree was settling over the cots as the result of Jasper's efforts to
reach the imprisoned girls. Harriet Burrell's mind worked rapidly. She
turned as quickly as she was able until she lay at right angles to the
cots and wholly beneath them with her head inward, her feet toward the
spot where Jasper and Jane were working feverishly to reach the girls.
"I don't know that I can do it, but I can try," muttered Harriet. She was
barely able to breathe. "Hurry!" she called. "We can't stand it much
longer." The girl braced herself, arched her back and stiffened her
muscles. To her joy, she found herself able to raise the cots a trifle.
The weight that had last crushed them down, was not so great but that she
could raise it, though when she desisted from her efforts the weight
above, held her down firmly across the bodies of two of her companions.
"Here we are darlin's," came the welcome voice of Crazy Jane close at
hand. "Hurry, now. This old house may tumble in again."
"Tell me when you are ready. Help Patricia out first. I'll lift the cots
while you pull her out. All ready?"
"Yes."
Harriet threw all her strength into the task of raising the cots,
underneath which she had burrowed. Patricia was quickly dragged out. The
cots sagged under the weight that bore them down and Harriet Burrell
sagged under the weight of both.
"Cora! Be quick!" she gasped.
"I--I can't move."
Harriet put forth a greater effort of strength. Cora Kidder was dragged
out from under the cots gasping. Then came Tommy more dead than alive,
uttering frightened little moans. Harriet suddenly collapsed under the
weight she had been holding up, her three companions in the meantime being
on their way to safety.
Jane heard the crackling of the limbs of the tree and the snap of a brace
on a cot. Her frantic calls to Harriet were unanswered. Crazy Jane knew
that Harriet Burrell was in mortal danger.
Jasper was still holding the lantern, just outside the danger line, so
that Jane was now working in the dark. Making her way to the pile of cots
she groped helplessly about, her hands at length coming in contact with
Harriet's feet. Five seconds later Jane was bending all her energies to
the work of raising the cot from the body of her friend. It was
useless--Harriet was pinned down under the weight of the tree pressing
upon the cot.
"Jasper, where are you?" cried Jane.
"I'm holding the lantern out here."
"Bring it nearer, you wooden Indian!" cried the girl indignantly.
Jasper obeyed with alacrity, holding the lantern as close to where Jane
worked as was possible.
Jane made one more frantic effort to raise the cot, then finding it
useless she clambered back to where Jasper stood peering anxiously at the
fallen tent. Glancing hastily about, she instantly formed her plan for
rescuing Harriet.
Seizing one of the side poles of the tent she ran one end of it under the
cot; then bracing her shoulder against it, used it as a lever in the
endeavor to pry the weight off her friend. The pole broke in the middle.
Nothing daunted, she placed the two broken ends of it together under the
cot, and thus doubling their strength, she shouted excitedly to Jasper:
"Take hold, you owl-faced sleepy-head!"
Jasper did so, and with difficulty elevated the cot a few inches above the
body of Harriet.
But that was enough! Like a flash Jane bent down and dragged Harriet from
her perilous position and out into the open air.
Harriet lay on the wet ground gasping for breath. She was completely
exhausted. Her hair was a tangled mass, her face was scratched and bloody,
her wrapper was badly torn.
"Get away from here!" commanded Crazy Jane, turning on Jasper almost
savagely, and Jasper lost no time in obeying her. "Are you much hurt,
darlin'?" she begged grasping one of Harriet's hands in both her own.
"Oh! Wa--ait till I ge--t my breath," gasped Harriet.
"Take your time. Oh, I'm so glad. I thought I'd never get you out."
Harriet roused herself.
"Is Harriet all right?" cried the anxious voice of Hazel Holland.
"Yes, she is, but don't you bother her," warned Jane. "She's all in."
"I--I'll be all ri--ight Don't worry," gasped Harriet.
She struggled to a sitting posture. Then her head drooped forward. Her
arms fell limply at her sides, and with a little moan Harriet toppled
over, unconscious.