TO THE RESCUE
Life to some of the girls at Greycliff seemed “stale, flat and
unprofitable” after Philip and Campbell, Captain Van Horne, Donald,
and the rest of the boys and instructors at the military academy had
gone. The school at Greycliff continued several weeks after the
other school was closed. “I can think of nothing better for you,”
declared Miss Randolph in a chapel talk, “than to stay here and work
while the nation and your homes are in this turmoil. I appreciate
all the thoughts that call you homeward, but it will not be long
before you can go. The prizes for excellence will soon be awarded,
and we must make this Commencement worth while for those who have
earned them.” Indeed there was nothing else to do but to continue as
nearly as possible in the ordinary school schedule. Old amusements
began again to have their charm, especially in the beautiful
environment of Greycliff. The outdoor sports engaged the girls in
their free moments. As soon as the ice had gone out of the little
river and the spring freshets were over, canoeing became a popular
sport, and the girls who had been together at camp during the
previous summer were especially good in it. There was a new and
larger boathouse this year, on the river, and more canoes than
before were available.
One especially warm day, Cathalina and Hilary were having a talk.
They were sitting where the rise of ground from the shore of the
river jutted out a little over the stream, and a tree recently
felled made a rustic seat. They had just come up from the beach
through the wood, and seeing Isabel in a canoe, strolled down from
the wood to watch her.
“Take off your cloak, Cathalina,” said Hilary, “and let this June
sun dry your bathing suit. It feels fine. The water was cold, wasn’t
it?”
“Yes, but that is not strange in this climate. We ought to go right
in, according to rules.”
“The sun is hot enough, this afternoon, but we’ll go in a minute.
Seems to me the river is a little rough.”
“They had some storms south and west of us, last night and this
morning. I imagine Isabel is having a hard row of it upstream.”
“She is paddling, not rowing. There she has turned again.”
“Hilary, do you remember the first year we were here together?”
“Indeed I do, Cathalina. I had never been with anybody just like
you, and I enjoyed it so much.”
“I didn’t amount to much, I guess.”
“Indeed you did. You had lots of grit to do so much that you were
not accustomed to doing. I admired you very much, and do yet.”
“You were the splendid girl that taught me so much,” said Cathalina.
“I hope that you are going to belong to our family. Campbell doesn’t
think of a girl but you.”
“It isn’t settled yet,” said Hilary, which was more than she had
said as yet to any one except Lilian. “I think so much of Campbell,
but there is college and the war and everything, and, Cathalina, I
couldn’t be engaged to Campbell unless he asked me, could I?”
Hilary’s eyes were dancing now.
“What! The silly boy! He’d better make sure of you!”
“I’m sure he feels conscientious about the war. He said that he
couldn’t do what Phil is doing—not that he was criticizing Phil, you
understand, Cathalina, because I know how much he thinks of him.”
Cathalina nodded.
“I don’t know whether I am ready myself, yet, either. But we just
keep getting better and better acquainted and like to be together.”
Cathalina shook her head. “That isn’t very romantic, is it? Look at
Isabel, Hilary! What is she doing?” Cathalina was standing on the
edge of the elevation watching Isabel, who seemed to have caught her
canoe in a snag or some obstruction near the opposite side of the
stream. Suddenly whatever it was gave way and the canoe shot out and
over toward the other shore with a force that upset it.
“Isabel will get a plunge, too,” said Cathalina lightly, watching
closely, however, till Isabel should come to the surface and strike
out for the shore or the canoe. But Isabel when she came to the
surface made no effort and sank again a little farther down stream.
“Get a canoe, Hilary!” called Cathalina as she dived from the point
in the hope of catching Isabel in time.
Hilary wasted not a minute, but bounded down the incline to the
shore, and thrust out with one of the canoes that had, fortunately,
been left there. As she paddled, she shouted, in the hope that some
one might be near enough to hear her, though none of the men was in
sight, and it seemed as if all the girls must be at the lake shore.
“I wish I had a bigger boat to pick them up in,” thought Hilary,
“but the canoe is faster. Oh, please, Lord, let me get there in
time!”
Although the river was muddy, and the branch, or small tree in which
Isabel’s canoe had caught must have been brought down quite
recently, the current was not very strong, and that was in the
girls’ favor. Cathalina, on coming up from her dive, caught sight of
Isabel’s head only a little above her, but as she disappeared at
once, she dived to get her and caught her. Not for nothing had
Cathalina watched the life-saving tests at camp. She had tried the
“bringing in” of a supposedly drowning girl, but this was different,
and the bank looked a long way off. But by this time, water was a
familiar element, and she felt that she could keep them both up for
a little while. Supporting Isabel’s head, she waited for help,
trying to direct their way toward the shore as much as she could,
but carried further down by the current.
Hilary knew that Cathalina’s endurance was not equal to her courage,
and paddled her best to make up for the time lost in getting
started. Several times she lost sight of the girls, and fear struck
her heart. But they had only drifted around a curve, and Cathalina
had managed to get out of the current and nearer the shore. But the
stream was deep at that point, and Cathalina’s strength only
sufficient to keep afloat. It seemed ages till she heard Hilary’s
encouraging voice. “Here I am, now steady and careful, so the canoe
won’t go over!”
Cathalina grasped the side of the canoe, while Hilary tried to
balance it, but the pull on Cathalina’s side was too much. Hilary
found herself in the water, added to the number of “casualties,”
with only that fact that Hilary was a strong swimmer, and that the
shore was not far away, in their favor. The canoe had slipped from
Cathalina’s stiff fingers, though she still kept Isabel above the
water. But just as she was about to give up hope, Hilary reached her
and took Isabel, and a rowboat rounded the curve, with Mickey
pulling furiously.
“Take Cathalina in first,” sputtered Hilary, “and I’ll help you get
Isabel in.”
Mickey helped the dripping Cathalina over the side of the rowboat,
and with Hilary’s assistance drew Isabel up and over, putting her in
the bottom of the boat with her head on Cathalina’s lap. Then Hilary
scrambled in, and Mickey made haste to shore. By this time, they
were where the river widened, just before emptying into the lake,
and the shore was sandy. Mickey laid Isabel on the beach and began
to work over her. Hilary helped, but told Cathalina to stretch out
on the sand before she tried to climb the hill to the Hall.
“Go on, now, Miss Hilary,” said Mickey, “and have them get things
ready at the hospital. She’s breathing and the water’s out of her.
I’ll have her there in a jiffy.” But two or three of the girls from
the lake shore who were half way up the hill already got Hilary’s
word and sped more quickly than the tired Hilary to have the nurse
at the little hospital annex ready to receive her patient.
Cathalina, also, rose and dragged herself up the hill, after Hilary
and Mickey, who had Isabel gathered in his strong arms, and wasted
no time in climbing the ascent and hurrying across the campus.
The word went round. “Isabel Hunt’s drowned, and Cathalina Van
Buskirk and Hilary Lancaster, too, they say.”
This was repeated outside of Isabel’s suite to Olivia, who was about
to enter. Two girls had just come in, and were passing through the
hall.
“No, they aren’t, either,” said one. “I saw them going into the pest
house, but Cathalina could scarcely drag herself there. Mickey was
carrying Isabel, and told us to ‘clear out’!” The girl giggled, in
spite of the serious occasion. Olivia burst into the room with the
news.
“Isabel drowned!” exclaimed Virginia. “Why, she is one of the best
swimmers here! Didn’t she win a swimming meet at camp last summer?”
Virgie had jumped up and her book had fallen to the floor. “I’m
going right over. Why, we just _came_ from there! We were all
canoeing, and Isabel said she wanted to stay out a little while
longer, and Mickey was right in the boathouse at the landing,
working on a canoe.” As she talked, she was twisting up her hair,
which she had been drying, and ran to the closet for dress-skirt and
middy. “Why didn’t I dress when I came in!”
“Here, let me help you,” said Olivia. “You’re hands are all shaking,
and you are trembling all over! I don’t believe Isabel is drowned,
but we’ll go and find out.” Olivia might have hung up the kimono
which she took from Virginia, but she threw it on the floor, and
while Virginia fastened one garment, had the other ready to go over
her head. “Where’s Avalon? Was she with Isabel?”
“I don’t know where Avalon is. She may be drowned, too, for all I
know.”
“Cheer up. Remember your name’s Hope, as Isabel says.”
“How in the world did Cathalina and Hilary get there?” continued
Virgie, thinking aloud. “They were at the shore, and would go right
in after bathing.”
“Gracious, Virgie—I don’t know. All I know is what the girls said
just now. I don’t see why Mickey should be in such a hurry and be so
cross if it were too late to do anything.”
The two girls ran down the back stairs to the door where Betty had
seen Donald’s mirrored countenance on that famous Hallowe’en, and
crossed the campus a short distance to the “pest house,” or hospital
annex. A group of girls had just left, walking away in an opposite
direction, but as Olivia and Virginia neared the door, it opened and
Hilary came out, wrapped in a big grey blanket. She was bound for
the same door of Greycliff Hall from which Olivia and Virginia had
come, and had on some big felt slippers and a few garments furnished
by the nurse, in place of her wet sandals and bathing suit. She
smiled rather wanly at the excited girls, and Virginia asked at
once, “Is it true that Isabel was drowned?”
“No, indeed! But she came pretty near it.”
“How did it happen? Tell us about it!”
“Wait till I get upstairs, if you don’t mind. I feel funny, too,
from some medicine they gave me, but Miss Randolph said I could go
to bed in the suite. She said that she was glad Cathalina and I
broke the rules for once.”
“What rules?—Oh, well, I won’t ask any more questions till you get
to bed. Did you rescue Isabel?”
Olivia began to laugh. “Aren’t you perfectly killing, Virginia Hope!
Just said you wouldn’t ask questions and ask her another in the same
breath! Come on, Hilary, I’ll help you upstairs.” But Hilary,
gathering her blanket around her, was climbing the back stairs
without any assistance, laughing, too, at Virginia.
“I don’t blame you, Virgie. I wouldn’t let you come with me if there
were any chance of your seeing Isabel. She is feeling pretty sick
right now, and a doctor is going to come and look her over. They put
Cathalina to bed, too. She was the one who rescued Isabel. She would
have been gone if it hadn’t been for Cathalina. She was standing on
the edge of the bank and dived to get her.” Hilary went up a few
more steps and then remembered another of Virginia’s questions. “Oh,
yes, about breaking rules. It was so warm, you know, that we took
our time about getting up to the Hall, and decided we’d go through
the wood to get to the side door. Then we saw Isabel, and I threw
off my cloak and sat in the sun on that tree Mickey cut down—and, of
course, it was breaking rules to wait, but we did not think of it
then. As I told Miss Randolph, we were ‘just stopping a minute’ on
the way. We didn’t see Mickey at all, but he was in the boathouse
and started right after us. I was in a canoe, you know, by that
time.”
“No, we didn’t know. I suppose when Cathalina dived, you ran for a
boat.”
“That was it.”
“Two more ‘heroines,’” remarked Olivia.
“Only one,” said Hilary. “Cathalina kept Isabel up till I got there,
and then the canoe upset! I think I could have taken Isabel to
shore, but it would have taken so much longer.”
Betty and Lilian were at home when the girls reached the suite, and
had not heard a word of the whole matter. They brought Hilary’s own
pretty gown, opened the bed and tucked her in “her downy cot,” as
Lilian said.
“My, doesn’t bed feel good?” said Hilary. “I’d be all right if I
hadn’t swallowed a lot of that river water, and they gave me
something hot at the pest house that made my head swim. Why, I’ve
paddled _miles_, and—swim, swam, swum a long time without its
hurting me. I was in the water this time only a few minutes.”
“But it was the strain of the danger, I imagine, and Isabel so near
drowning, that made you feel so used up,” suggested Lilian.
“Miss Randolph told me to go to bed and stay there,” laughed Hilary,
“and she would order a good dinner sent up to me. I wasn’t to worry
about either Cathalina or Isabel. Cathalina is just tired out.”
“Why couldn’t Isabel swim?” asked Virginia, for the account had been
confusing as it was repeated to Betty and Lilian.
“She must have been hurt in some way getting loose from that branch
or log, whatever it was.”
“Maybe she just fainted,” suggested Olivia.
“_Isabel_ faint!” exclaimed Virgie. “I don’t know, though; she said
she was dizzy this morning. Perhaps she’s coming down with
something.”
“We were all _going_ down for a while,” assented Hilary, with a
smile.
“Nothing serious the matter with Hilary, Lilian—she can joke still.”
“But you girls will find out how Isabel is before long and let me
know, won’t you?” begged Hilary. “Excuse me now; I’m going to sleep.
I’m glad to get rid of the hot grey blanket that I had to wear, to
cover deficiencies in wardrobe.”
Hilary impolitely turned her back upon the girls, while Lilian drew
the sheet and light blanket about her shoulders, pulled down the
shade part way, and tiptoed out, propping the door ajar that the
June breeze might pass through. Then she took a book and sat down in
the study to keep guard.
Betty and Virginia had gone right out. “I’m going straight to Miss
Randolph,” said Betty. “Cathalina is my room-mate, and she will
think it’s all right for me to inquire.”
“So is Isabel mine,” said Virginia. “Do you suppose she has come
back from the hospital?”
“I should think so, unless there is something wrong with Isabel. The
nurse will telephone everything.”
As the girls approached Miss Randolph’s door, with that guilty
feeling of intrusion which attacked them under such circumstances,
Mickey came out, having been called in to be questioned. His face
was red, but he was smiling.
“Oh, Mickey—you can tell us better than anybody how Isabel really is
and all about it.”
“There isn’t much,” replied Mickey. “Oi wuz worrkin’ in the
boathouse an’ the gurrls wuz all leavin’ the river. After I didn’t
hear ’em no more, I looks out an’ I sees the wan gurrl in the canoe,
an’ I starrted around the buildin’ fur wan o’ me tools I’d left out
there. Thin I hurrd a yell an’ there was Miss Hilary beatin’ it down
the river in a canoe and the little one was nowhere to be seen. So I
gets out a rowboat and starts after ’em. All of em wuz in the water
when I got there.”
After hearing Mickey’s account, Betty and Virginia decided not to
bother Miss Randolph, and in an hour or so Cathalina came over,
quite refreshed, finding Hilary up and demanding to go down to
dinner. Betty ran to ask Miss Randolph, who consented. Cathalina
reported that Isabel was “nearly all right,” and that it was as they
thought—she had gotten hurt when she pushed away from the branches
of the log. “The doctor was there and said that there was nothing
wrong. Isabel says that it is to make up for her not being in the
wreck last year—she has to be known to fame in some way!”
“Isn’t that just like Isabel?” said Betty.
There were only a few days more of school. Many plans had been
changed in regard to public events. There was no lawn fete, and the
Glee Club concert had been more like an ordinary recital at the
Hall, with only a few visitors from Greycliff Village. But the girls
adjusted themselves to the new conditions and made ready for the
summer vacation with all its interests, chief of which was to get
home to mothers and fathers who were seeing their boys off to
various camps, or expecting them to leave as soon as called.
Virginia, as she had hoped, won second place as debater, the highest
honors going to Isabel. Thanks to one of the wealthy trustees, this
was a comfortable little sum of money for each of them. Virginia
also won a collegiate scholarship and was leaving with the happy
feeling that not only were her bills all paid, but there was a good
chance of her returning for another year at Greycliff. “Any one who
makes as good candy as you do,” Isabel solemnly told her one day,
“will always be welcome at Greycliff!”
Isabel was to pay a visit to Cathalina in the summer and claimed to
be “in ecstasies at the thought.” She had put her arms around
Cathalina’s neck and held her close the first time she saw Cathalina
after the accident.
“To think you went right in after me!”
“Nonsense,” said Cathalina, embarrassed. “Of course I would.”
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Greycliff Heroines, by Harriet Pyne Grove