THE RESCUE, AND A MYSTERY
"Look there, Fred!" cried Bristles, "over nearer the shore, to the left!"
"I see them!" replied the other, almost instantly.
"It's a girl, and she acts as if she might be trying to get at somebody
in the water," the skipper of the ice-boat shouted, as he headed the
flying craft straight toward the spot.
"Be ready to bring up in the wind, so we can tumble off, Bristles!"
advised Fred, taking in the whole situation at a glance, in his
comprehensive way.
Bristles was already so excited that he came near upsetting the ice-boat
by being too speedy about making the turn. Both boys scrambled to their
feet as soon as they possibly could, and hurried toward the place where a
girl of about ten years of age was wringing her poor little hands, and
trying to reach a boy who was clinging to the crumbling edge of the ice.
He was up to his neck in the cold water of the river.
"Hold fast, and we'll get you out of that!" cried Fred, as they drew
near. His quick eye had already taken note of the fact that a rail fence
came down close to the water's edge just beyond, and it was straight
toward this that he was now hurrying. Bristles knew what he was going
for, and he kept near the heels of his chum.
The frightened girl thought they were deserting her, and redoubled her
cries.
"Help! Oh! help us! Please don't go away! My poor brother will be
drowned! He can't hold on much longer! Oh! come back and help get him
out!"
By that time Fred had reached the end of the fence, which ran into the
water so as to keep the cows from straying out of their pasture. He
struggled with one of the rails, and managed to break it loose.
"Get another, and chase after me, Bristles!" he shouted, as he once more
turned and hastened toward the hole in the rotten ice, where the boy, who
could not be more than twelve years of age, was trying as best he could
to keep from being drawn under by the sucking force of the strong
current.
Once close up, Fred dropped on his knees, shoving the rail ahead of him.
In this fashion he was able to push it directly to the imperiled boy.
Bristles had been so rapid in his actions that he was hardly ten seconds
behind the leader. He immediately copied Fred's example, so that there
were now two rails reaching out in the direction of the hole, their
further ends actually overtopping the gap in the ice.
"Stay here, Bristles, and do whatever I tell you!" Fred told his chum,
when, having arranged the rails as he wished, he started out along them.
His weight being now distributed over a wide surface there was no danger
of the rotten ice giving way under him. That is the essential point
about nearly all rescues on the ice, and what every boy should bear in
mind the moment his services are needed in order to save an imperiled
companion.
Fred was now enabled to approach the very edge of the hole, so that he
could hold out his hand to the boy in the water, who had been constantly
telling the girl to keep back lest she too fall in. Between them it was
possible to accomplish the rescue, for while Fred pulled, the boy also
exerted himself to the utmost, and presently crawled over the edge.
"Keep your weight as much as you can on the rails, because with your
clothes soaked, you weigh twice as much as I do," Fred kept telling him;
and yard by yard he drew the other along until finally they could get to
their feet, and make for the shore.
The girl was crying hysterically now, although she had shown considerable
bravery before.
"Oh! Brother Sammy, what if you had let go, and the current had drawn
you under the ice! I think I'd have wanted to jump in, too, because I'd
have nothing left to live for then!" she kept repeating, as she patted
his cold hand tenderly, and tried to warm it.
Fred knew that unless something was done immediately, the boy would be
very apt to be taken down sick, after all that nervous exhaustion, and
the cold bath he had suffered. The air was chilly, and must strike him
keenly.
"Here, you can't go home in that way, no matter how near by you live," he
went on to say, in his cheery way.
"Home!" repeated the girl, and her eyes exchanged a strange look with her
brother. "But what can we do, for there isn't any farmhouse around here?
We were coming across the river, and Sammy went too near a hole. Then
the ice broke, and all I could do was to scream. He wouldn't let me come
near him, but kept trying to climb out himself. Every time he got up on
the ice it broke again, and he went in. Oh! it was just terrible,
terrible! But he'll freeze now, mister, if we don't find a house soon."
"No he won't, not if we know it," said Fred. "Here, slap your arms about
you this way as hard as you can, and jump up and down as if you were
crazy. Never mind how it looks, if only you get the blood to circulating
good. Bristles, it's up to you and me to start a fire booming in a
hurry."
"Here's as good a place as any, Fred, for there's plenty of loose wood
around."
Fred was already busily engaged in hunting all manner of small bits of
dry fuel under the sheltered sides of the logs, and in hollow stumps. As
soon as he had gathered a few handfuls of this tinder, he drew out a
match, and started it burning.
Fred was a clever hand at making a fire, and this one did not fail him.
Bristles had in the meantime brought an armful of wood, and, selecting
the smaller pieces, the two soon had a fine, large blaze going, that
began to send out a considerable amount of welcome heat.
"Back up here, and see how this feels, Sammy," Fred told the shivering
lad. When the other had done so, he added, "Now, just as soon as you
feel warm on one side, change to the other. You know what they say, 'one
good turn deserves another,' and here's where it applies. Keep up your
exercising, because all that is going to help prevent you from taking
cold. If I only had some hot tea or coffee, I'd give you some, but we'll
have to do without it, I'm afraid."
He kept talking to the boy and girl as he worked at the fire, and
Bristles continued to carry fresh supplies of wood, laboring like a good
fellow. In this way Fred managed to learn that the name of the boy they
had rescued was Sam Ludson and that he lived with Corny Ludson; though
when he asked how far away it was they lived the answer was an evasive
one.
"A good distance away," was about all the boy would say, and Fred could
not help noticing that he again exchanged uneasy looks with his sister.
There was certainly something very queer about these two, though Fred
could not understand why they should feel backward about telling where
they lived, and especially to a couple of boys who had just done them a
great favor.
Still, Fred was not unduly curious about it. If the brother and sister
did not want to take him into their confidence, he was not the one to
persist. So far as he could remember, Ludson was a name he had never
heard before, so it did not seem as though they could ever have lived
around Riverport. Bristles later on also declared that it was strange to
him, and he had been born there, while Fred was comparatively a newcomer,
having arrived only a couple of years previous to this time.
His particular business, as Fred saw it, was not to poke into other
people's private affairs, but to get the clothes of Sam dry as soon as
possible. Then he would feel that he and Bristles had finished their
duty.
So he continued to keep the fire burning, and have Sam turned around
every little while. At first the child steamed at a tremendous rate, but
as by degrees the moisture was absorbed by the heat, he began to feel
much more comfortable.
"I guess I'll go now, mister," Sammy remarked, finally, as though anxious
to get away from these kind friends before they took to asking him any
awkward questions.
"Just hold up a little while longer, and then you'll be all right, Sam,"
he was told by Fred, and like a great many other fellows, the boy fell
into a habit of observing the wishes of this leader among the scholars at
Riverport High.
"Whatever you say, mister, goes," he observed, with humility. "You've
sure done me a great service, and I ain't going to forget it, either. I
don't reckon it'll happen that I c'n pay you back, but if the chance ever
does hit me, I'm agoin' to do it, sure thing."
"Are you feeling as good as ever again, Sammy?" asked his sister, who was
rather a pretty girl, Bristles thought, as he looked her over, from the
wretched little hat she wore on her bonny brown hair, the odd cheap pin
at her throat, the faded dress, to the coarse shoes that gaped badly at
the toes.
"I certainly am," he responded, caressing the hand she had laid on the
sleeve of his ragged jacket. Somehow it struck Fred right then and there
that mutual suffering must have drawn these two frail looking beings
closer together than the average brother and sister.
"Well, then you can make off home if you feel fit," Fred told them, "and
let me tell you my friend here and myself both feel mighty glad we
happened to be as close by as we were. It taught you a lesson, I expect,
Sam, and you'll fight shy of blow-holes in the rotten ice after this,
won't you?"
"You bet I will, mister; and say, I guess I'm gladder'n you c'n be about
that same thing; because the river is awful swift around here, and I kept
getting colder and weaker all the while. Couldn't have held out much
longer. I want to thank both of you for what you did. I ain't goin' to
ever forget it either, see if I do, though, shucks! I don't 'spect I'll
ever have a chance to pay you back."
He shook hands with both Fred and Bristles, as did also the little girl,
now looking both grave and pleased. Then they walked away, making for
the nearby road that led from Mechanicsburg to some other town many miles
away, and leaving the vicinity of the Mohunk.
Fred and Bristles prepared to seek once more the ice-boat, and resume
their interrupted cruise, this time heading for home. Both of them were
thrilled with a deep satisfaction on account of having been given such a
splendid chance to effect a rescue, for nothing pleases the average boy
more than to realize that he has been enabled to play the part of a hero.
They were not the ones to boast of such a thing as that. Indeed, neither
of them considered that they had been in the slightest danger at any
time. Had one of them found it necessary to jump into the cold waters of
the Mohunk in order to save the drowning boy, that might have been a
different matter.
"This fire does feel pretty fine," Bristles remarked, as they got ready
to depart, "and I kind of hate to leave it, because, as you know, Fred, I
always worship a camp fire. No need to put this one out, is there?
because it couldn't set these woods afire if it tried its best, while
everything's covered with snow.
"Ready to make the start? What'd you think of Sam and his sister, Sadie
Ludson, eh? Mysterious sort of pair, weren't they? Didn't want to tell
us anything about themselves, at all. I'm trying to knock my head and
say where I've heard that name before, but so far it gets me. Well, we
never may see them again, so what's it matter? I'm glad, though, you
pulled Sam out of the river. He owes his life to you, Fred."
"To us, you mean, Bristles, for you had just as much to do with it as any
one," insisted Fred; and afterwards, whenever he told the story, he
always maintained that Bristles had stood by him, and done his share of
the rescue work.
They managed to make the return trip safely, and Bristles took it upon
himself later on to try to find out if anybody knew the Ludsons, but he
met with little success, and with Fred was compelled to put the thing
down as a mystery that could not be solved.