THE WRECK OF THE "WATER WITCH"
The girls began their row to the "Merry Maid" with all speed. They had
had such an interesting morning that they did not realize how the time
had flown. They did not know the exact hour now, but they feared it would
be after twelve before they could rejoin Miss Jenny Ann. The sun was so
nearly overhead and shining so brilliantly that the effect was almost
dazzling. Madge and Phil did not try to see any distance ahead in their
course. Lillian, however, was on the lookout. There were several inlets
opening into the larger water-way down which the girls were rowing. Boats
were likely to come unexpectedly out of these inlets, and the girls
should have been far more watchful than they were.
"It's too bad about Mrs. Curtis and Tom not coming on to Cape May as soon
as we expected them, isn't it?" remarked Phil, resting for half a moment
from the strain of the steady pulling at her oars. "I hope they will
arrive soon, before we have the responsibility of entertaining Mrs.
Curtis's friend, Philip Holt. It won't be much fun to have a strange man
following us about everywhere, even if he should turn out to be nicer
than we think he is." Phil was the stroke oar. She was talking over her
shoulder to Madge, who was paying more attention to her friend's
conversation than to her rowing.
"Oh, I think Mrs. Curtis and Tom will be along soon," she rejoined. "I
felt dreadfully when we received the telegram this morning. But now I
hope Mrs. Curtis's brother will get well in a hurry. Perhaps they will be
here almost as soon as this Philip. I'll wager you a pound of chocolates,
Phil, that this goody-goody young man can't swim or row, or do anything
like an ordinary person. He will just think every single thing we do is
perfectly dreadful, and will frighten Tania to death with his preaching.
I know he thinks her fairy stories are lies. He told Mrs. Curtis that
Tania never spoke the truth." Madge lowered her voice. "I am sure we have
never caught her in a lie. I suppose this Philip will think my
exaggerations are as bad as Tania's fairy stories. I hate too literal
people."
"Dear me, whom are you and Phil discussing, Madge?" inquired Lillian,
leaning over from her seat in the stern with Tania, to try to catch her
friends' low-voiced conversation. "If it is that Philip Holt, you need
not think that he will trouble us very much when he comes to Cape May. He
is just the kind of person who will trot after all the rich people he
meets, and waste very little energy on those who have neither money nor
social position."
Lillian was looking at Madge and Phil as she talked. For the moment she
forgot to keep a sharp watch about on the water. But a moment since there
had been no other boats in sight near them. Eleanor was resting in the
prow with her eyes closed. The sun blazed hotly in her face, she could
only see a bright light dancing before her eyes.
As Lillian leaned back in her seat in the stern her face took on an
expression of sudden alarm. At the same moment the four girls heard the
distinct chug of a motor engine. Cutting down upon them was a pleasure
yacht run by a gasoline motor. The prow of the yacht was head-on with the
"Water Witch" and running at full speed. The boat had blown no whistle,
so the girls had not seen its approach.
"Look ahead!" shouted Lillian.
The young man who was steering the yacht paid no heed to her warning. He
kept straight ahead, although he distinctly saw the rowboat and its
passengers.
Madge and Phyllis had no time to call out or to protest. They realized,
almost instantly, that the motor launch meant to make no effort to slow
down but to put the full responsibility of getting out of danger on the
rowers.
The girls had no particular desire to be thrown into the water, nor to
have their boat cut in two, so they pulled for dear life, with white
faces and straining throats and arms.
They just missed making their escape by a hair's breadth. The young man
running the yacht must have believed that the skiff would get safely by
or else when he found out his mistake it was too late for him to slow
down. The prow of his yacht ran with full force into the frail side of
the "Water Witch" near her stern.
The little skiff whirled in the water almost in a semi-circle. By a
miracle it escaped being completely run down by the launch. Yet a second
later, before any one of the girls could stir, the water rushed into the
hole in its side and it sank. Madge and Phyllis had had their oars
wrenched from their hands. Then they found themselves struggling in the
water.
A cry rose from the launch as the "Water Witch" and her passengers
disappeared. But there was no sound from the little rowboat, save the
gurgle of the water and a shrill scream from Tania as the waves closed
over her head.
The yacht swept on past, borne perhaps by her own headway.
As Madge went down under the water two thoughts seemed to come to her
mind in the same second: she must look after Eleanor and Tania. Her
cousin, Nellie, was not able to swim as well as the other girls. She had
always been more nervous and timid in the water and was liable to sudden
cramp. Madge knew that being hurled from a boat in such sudden fashion
with her clothes on instead of a bathing suit would completely terrify
Eleanor. She might lose her presence of mind completely and fail to
strike out when she rose to the surface of the water. As for Tania, Madge
was aware that she, of course, could not swim a stroke. The little one
had never been in deep water before in her life.
Madge struggled for breath for a second as she came to the surface of the
bay again. She had swallowed some salt water as she went down. In the
next desperate instant she counted three heads above the waves besides
her own. Phyllis was swimming quietly toward Eleanor. Evidently she had
entertained Madge's fear. "Make for the 'Water Witch,' Nellie," Madge
heard Phil say in her calm, cool-headed fashion. "It has overturned and
come up again and we can hang on to that. Don't be frightened. I am
coming after you. Try to float if your clothes are too heavy to swim.
I'll pull you to the boat."
Lillian's golden head reflected the light from the sun's rays as she swam
along after Phil. But nowhere could Madge see a sign of a little, wild,
black head with its straight, short locks and frightened black eyes.
She waited for another breathless moment. Why did Tania not rise to the
surface like the rest of them? Madge was trying to tread water and to
keep a sharp lookout about her, but her clothes were heavy and kept
pulling her down; swimming in heavy shoes is an extremely difficult
business, even for an experienced swimmer. All of a sudden it occurred to
Madge that Tania might have risen under the overturned rowboat. Then her
head would have struck against its bottom and she would have gone down
again without ever having been seen.
There was nothing else to be done. Madge must dive down to see what had
become of her little friend, yet diving was difficult when she had no
place from which to dive. Madge knew she must get all the way down to the
very bottom of the bay to see if by any chance Tania's body could have
been entangled among the sea weed, or her clothes caught on a rock or
snag.
Once down, she looked in vain for the little body along the sandy bottom
of the bay. She espied some rocks covered with shimmering shells and sea
ferns, but there was no trace of Tania. For the second time she rose to
the surface of the water. She hoped to see Tania's black head glistening
among those of her older friends clustered about the overturned boat. She
had grown very tired and was obliged to shake the water out of her eyes
before she dared trust herself to look.
Then she saw that Phil had hold of one of Eleanor's hands and with the
other was clinging to the slippery side of their overturned boat. Eleanor
was numb with cold and shock. Although her free hand rested on the boat,
Phil dared not let go of her for fear she would sink.
Phyllis was beginning to feel uneasy about Madge. She had given no
thought to her during the early part of the accident, she knew Madge to
be a water witch herself, but when the little captain did not come to the
skiff with the rest of them Phil's heart grew heavy. What could she do?
Dare she let go her hold on Eleanor? Strangely enough, in their peril,
Phyllis had given no thought to the little stranger, Tania.
Phyllis Alden breathed a happy sigh of relief when she saw Madge's curly,
red-brown head moving along toward them.
"Have you seen Tania?" she called faintly, trying to reserve both her
breath and her strength.
Then Phil remembered Tania with a rush of remorse and terror. "No, I
haven't, Madge. What could have become of the child?" she faltered.
Lillian looked out over the water. Surely the launch that had wrecked
them would have been able by this time to come back to their assistance.
The boat had stopped, but it had not moved near to them. So far, its crew
showed no sign of giving them any aid. Lillian could not believe her
eyes.
"I'd better dive for Tania again," said Madge quietly, without intimating
to her chums that she was feeling a little tired and less sure of herself
in the water than usual. She knew they would not allow her to dive.
When she went down for Tania the second time she chose a different place
to make her descent. She must find the little girl at once.
She was swimming along, not many inches from the bottom of the bay, when
she caught sight of what seemed to her a large fish floating near some
rocks. Madge swam toward it slowly. It was Tania's foot, swaying with the
motion of the water. Caught on a spar, which might have once been part of
a mast of an old ship, was Tania's dress. On the other side of her was a
rock, and her body had become wedged between the two objects. It was a
beautiful place and might have been a cave for a mermaid, but it held the
little earth-princess in a death-like grasp.
It is possible to be sick with fear and yet to be brave. Madge knew her
danger. She saw that Tania's dress was caught fast. She would have to tug
at it valiantly to get it away. First, she pulled desperately at Tania's
shoe, hoping she could free her body. A suffocating weight had begun to
press down on her chest. She could hear a roaring and buzzing in her
ears. She knew enough of the water to realize that she had been too long
underneath; she should rise to the surface again to get her breath. But
she dared not wait so long to release Tania. Nor did she know that she
could find the child again when she returned. She must do her work now.
So Madge pulled more slowly and carefully at Tania's frock, unwinding it
from the spar that held it. With a few gentle tugs she released it and
Tania's slender body rose slowly. The child's eyes were closed, her face
was as still and white as though she were dead. Madge was glad of Tania's
unconsciousness. She knew that in this lay the one chance of safety for
herself and the child. If Tania came to consciousness and began to
struggle the little captain knew that her strength was too far gone for
her to save either the child or herself. She would not leave her. She
would have to drown with her.
She caught the little girl by her black hair, and swam out feebly with
her one free arm. At this moment Tania's black eyes opened wide. She
realized their awful peril. She was only a child, and the fear of the
drowning swept over her. She gave a despairing clutch upward, threw both
her thin arms about Madge's neck and held her in a grasp of steel. For a
second Madge tried to fight Tania's hands away. Then her strength gave
out utterly. She realized that the end had come for them both.