A GOOD TURN
"There isn't time to do this," Westy said.
"Well, we'll do it whether there's time or not," I shot back at him.
"Hustle, all of you, get your clothes off. There's time until he
disappears. Two of you fellows follow the hill north and go down at the
nearest place you can get down. There isn't any bee-line now. No, don't
you go, Pee-wee--Dorry and Will go. Here, take my scarf, you've got your
own, too--never mind looking at the tree," I said. "Here, take this
shirt, too. You know how to stop blood flowing, don't you? Put a stick
under the bandage and wind it round. _Hurry up, he's slipping._ We can't
get this blamed thing ready in time. Do what you can for him down there.
Hurry...."
It was funny, but as soon as they started I just couldn't help looking
over there to the ridge at that big tree that had guided us all day.
Kind of, I wondered if it knew the trouble we were in--and that after
all we wouldn't get there. But I only thought of it for about a second.
Down there on the ledge Warde was almost half over. He couldn't use his
hands to hold on with now, but he just squeezed the bushes between his
feet. He was slipping over slowly.
"Hang on," I shouted; "we're hustling, we'll throw you a line."
"_Look, look!_" one of the fellows who had just started away shouted.
"_Oh, look!_"
I just clapped my hands over my eyes for a moment; I _couldn't_ look. I
just couldn't. I knew what it meant. My hand was trembling and my heart
was just choking me. "Did you--did you hear him--land?" I asked.
"Over there--east," some one said.
I looked in the direction we had come from, and as sure as I'm writing
this, there was some one running pell-mell right toward us. I saw right
away it was a girl. You know how a girl runs, especially when she runs
fast. She was holding her head way back and laughing, and her hair was
all flying loose. There was something big and kind of gray colored
around her neck--very big and clumsy. I stood just about a second, then
I made a sprint for her. I never ran so fast in my life. We came toward
each other just flying. Her cheeks were all flushed and her hair was all
over her face and she was panting and laughing all at once.
She said, "I--I--I--I've--got--your--rope--so there. I--I--ran all--the
way--with it. You--you said--I--I--I----"
"Don't talk, give me the rope!" I said.
"Maybe--I--I--fooled you about--about the house--my own--house--but I
can do things too--run--see? Here. They caught--the bandit--here----"
I ran pell-mell back to the edge with the rope. "Did he--did he go
over?" I called.
"Hurry!" they shouted.
Gee, I wish you could have been there to see all that. There were the
scouts of my patrol, all half dressed, jumping up and down and yelling,
"_Hurry, hurry!_" There was Dora Dane Daring coming along behind me and
all the scouts cheering her. I can hardly tell you just how everything
happened. Westy grabbed the rope from me and by the time I looked over
the edge, all panting and trembling, there it was right over the edge
of the slanting shelf.
But Warde Hollister wasn't there!