ABOUT A GYMNASTIC CONTEST
Major Jack Ruddy was a good swimmer, and felt perfectly at home in the
water. He did not go down deep, but he made a long “fetch,” and when he
came up he was close beside Will Carey. He caught that youth by the arm
and dragged him clear of the sail.
“Sa—save m—me!” sputtered the Pornell Academy youth, after blowing some
water from his mouth.
“I will,” answered Jack. “But keep quiet.”
“M—my foot is—is fast!”
“So I see.”
A piece of rope had become entwined around Will Carey’s ankle. It was
caught in a loop and it was no easy thing to loosen it. The Pornell
Academy lad thrashed around wildly and tried to get Jack by the throat.
“Don’t do that!” cried the young major. “Hold on easy-like.” But like
many others in danger of drowning Will Carey now grew frantic, and
scarcely realizing his actions he caught Jack by the neck and clung so
fast that the young major was in danger of being choked to death.
The wind had now veered around, sending the _Alice_ some distance away
from the _Ajax_, so that Pepper and the others could offer no
assistance. Such being the case, and realizing the seriousness of his
position, Jack did what appeared to be cruel, but was fully justified.
As well as he could he hauled back with his fist and struck the other
boy in the chin. It was a stiff, hard blow and it dazed Will Carey and
rendered him all but insensible. At once his hold on Jack relaxed, and
he lay like a log in the young major’s arm.
With his free hand Jack worked with all possible haste on the rope which
held the other boy a prisoner and soon managed to loosen the loop and
slip Will’s foot through it. Then, with the Pornell Academy lad on his
shoulder, he swam away from the capsized sloop.
“Jack! Jack!” came the call above the wind, and turning slightly he saw
the _Alice_ coming toward him. A line with one of the life-preservers
attached was flung to him and he grasped it. Then he was hauled up to
the stern of the sloop and finally dragged on board, with Will still in
his grasp. The sufferer was just opening his eyes again.
“Don—don’t hi—hit me ag—again!” he gasped. “Please do—don’t!”
“You’re all right now,” answered Jack. He was so exhausted he could
scarcely speak.
“Oh!” gasped Will Carey, and that was all he said for several minutes.
Jack placed him on a seat and sank down beside him. All of the other
lads but Pepper, who was at the tiller, surrounded the pair.
“It was a brave thing to do, Jack,” was Dale’s comment.
“What did you hit him for?” demanded Bat Sedley, who had seen the blow
from a distance. “It was a mean thing to do when he was struggling for
his life.”
“I had to do it—he had me by the throat. If I had not done it both of us
might have been drowned.”
“Humph! I never heard of hitting a drowning person,” sneered Bat.
“I have heard of such a thing,” put in Fred Century. “I think you
deserve a good deal of credit for what you did,” he added, with a warm
look at the young major.
“I reckon he could have saved Will without trying to break his jaw,”
grumbled Bat Sedley, and then turned his attention to the youth Jack had
rescued. Clearly he was not one to give his rival any credit.
By this time the squall—for it was little else—was going down. The
whitecaps still ruffled the bosom of Cayuga Lake, but the wind had
dwindled to a gentle breeze, just enough to fill the sails of the
_Alice_ and no more.
“Are you all right, Jack?” questioned Paul.
“Yes,” was the reply. “I’d feel a little better with a dry uniform on,
but that can’t be helped.”
“I think I’d feel better myself with dry clothing,” came from Fred
Century, with a weak smile. He gazed anxiously at his capsized craft. “I
must say, I don’t know what to do with my boat.”
“You certainly can’t right her out here,” said Pepper.
“I know that.”
“All we can do is to tow her in as she is,” continued Jack. “We’ll do
that willingly; eh, fellows?”
“Sure,” came the prompt answer.
“If you’ll do that I’ll be much obliged. Our race didn’t turn out just
as I anticipated,” went on Fred.
“You kept your sails up too long,” said Pepper.
“I know that—now. But I thought the _Ajax_ would stand the blow until I
reached the Cove. How are you, Will?” he continued, turning to the boy
who had come so close to drowning.
Will Carey had little to say. He mumbled in a low tone and looked rather
darkly at Jack.
“He is angry because you hit him,” whispered Paul to Jack.
“I can’t help it if he is, Stuffer,” was the answer. “I simply had to do
something or go down with him.”
“I know it, and he ought to be thankful he was saved. But some fellows
don’t know what gratitude is.”
Not without considerable difficulty a line was made fast to the bow of
the capsized sloop and the task of towing the _Ajax_ was begun.
“If we had time I think we could right that craft,” observed Pepper.
“How?” demanded Bat Sedley.
“By taking her over to yonder point, where the tall trees overhang the
water. We could run a rope up over a tall tree limb and then fasten it
to the mast of the _Ajax_. By pulling on the end of the rope I think
we’d bring her up.”
“Yes—and sink her, too.”
“Not if we watched out and kept bailing as she righted.”
“I’d like to try that,” said Fred Century. “If you’ll take us over to
the point and lend us some ropes I’ll do it,” he added, after turning
the project over in his mind.
“Certainly I’ll take you over,” answered Jack. “And we’ll help all we
can. But we’ve got to get back to Putnam Hall by six o’clock, you know.”
“Say!” ejaculated Will Carey, leaping to his feet with great suddenness.
“Did anybody see my box?”
“Box? What box?” asked several.
“The little blue, tin box I was carrying in my coat-pocket.”
“I am sure I haven’t seen any blue box,” answered Pepper, and looked
around the standing-room of the _Alice_.
“What did you have in it, Will?” asked Fred Century.
“Why—I—er—oh, not much, but I didn’t want to lose the box, that’s all,”
stammered the youth who had come close to drowning.
“Did you have it in your pocket when you went overboard?” questioned the
young major.
“Yes, and I had my hand on it, too,” was the reply. “I suppose it’s at
the bottom of the lake now,” added Will Carey. His face showed a look of
positive worry. “How deep is it where the _Ajax_ went over?”
“Must be ten or twelve feet at least,” answered Dale.
“Did you think you might go fishing for it?” questioned Fred.
“Yes—but not now.” And that was all Will Carey said about the blue, tin
box. But that he was very much worried was plainly evident. And he had
good cause to worry, as we shall learn later.
The point of land mentioned having been gained, the _Ajax_ was towed
around as Fred Century desired, and then the young owner was loaned a
number of ropes and a pail for bailing.
“If I can’t right her I’ll tie her fast and send some boat builder after
her,” he announced. “I am much obliged for what you’ve done. Some day
I’ll race you again.”
“Willingly!” cried Jack.
“I still think the _Ajax_ a better boat than the _Alice_.”
“She certainly isn’t a bad boat,” put in Pepper. “A real race to a
finish will have to decide which is the better of the two.”
“Oh, we’ll beat you out of your boots,” said Bat Sedley. Will Carey said
nothing. He was still thinking about the loss of his blue, tin box.
As it was getting late, the Putnam Hall cadets lost no time in steering
as straight a course as possible for the school dock. But the breeze was
against them, so they were not able to reach the dock until nearly
half-past six.
“It’s fortunate old Crabtree is away on business,” was Pepper’s comment.
“He’d be sure to haul us over the coals for being late, even if we did
meet with an accident.”
“Late again, eh?” cried a voice from the boathouse, and Peleg Snuggers,
the general utility man around the Hall, stepped into view. “The captain
don’t allow sech doin’s, and you young gents know it.”
“Couldn’t be helped, Peleg,” answered Pepper. “Blew so hard the wind
turned our sails inside out.”
“You don’t tell me?” The hired man looked perplexed for a moment.
“Inside out? How could that be? I reckon you’re joking. Oh, Major Jack,
you’re all wet!”
“He wanted a swim and was too lazy to take off his clothes,” put in
Dale.
“The uniform will be ruined. Better take it off now.”
“Oh, Jack wants to go to bed in it,” said Pepper, lightly. He loved to
tease Peleg.
“Ha! ha! you must have your joke. I reckon he won’t go to bed in no wet
clothes, ’less he wants to git rheumatism an’ lumbago, an’ a few other
things,” answered Peleg Snuggers, and walked away.
Without loss of time Jack slipped up to his dormitory and changed his
wet uniform for a dry suit. Then the wet clothing was sent to the
laundry to be dried and pressed. In the meantime the other lads hastened
to the mess-room for supper. There they told Captain Putnam of what had
occurred.
“You must be more careful in the future,” said the master of the school.
“A squall is a nasty thing to be out in—I know that from personal
experience. I must see Major Ruddy and have a talk with him,” and he
hastened off to Jack’s room. He could not help but praise the young
major for his heroism.
It soon became noised about the Hall that the new sloop from Pornell
Academy had met Jack’s craft, and more of the cadets were interested in
the outcome of the race than they were in the rescue that had taken
place.
“Of course it was a great thing to pull those chaps out of the water,”
was Andy Snow’s comment. “But I do wish you had beaten them by about a
mile, Pep.”
“Well, when the squall came we simply had to call it off—with the other
sloop capsized.”
“Oh, I know that.”
“By the way, Andy,” went on Pepper. “I understand that you have a little
contest of your own coming off at the gym.”
“So I have,” answered the acrobatic youth of Putnam Hall.
“Who are you going to meet this time?”
“Gus Coulter.”
“What, that bully! I thought you were done with Coulter, Ritter, and
that crowd.”
“I thought I was,” said Andy. “But Coulter said I was afraid to meet him
in a hand-walking and chinning-the-bar contest, and bragged to all the
others what he could do, so I had to take him up.”
“Is he so good at lifting his own weight?”
“I don’t know. Henry Lee told me he saw him chinning the bar nine
times.”
“Well, I hope you can do better than that.”
“Perhaps I can. But we are to do some walking on our hands first,” went
on Andy. “I’d rather do some stunts on the bars and rings—it is more in
my line,” he added. “I wish he would challenge me to do the giant’s
swing against him—then I’d feel sure I could beat him.”