WHEN THE CRAMP SEIZED JOEL
What the excited Toby had just said in thrilling tones was undoubtedly
the truth. There was no "fooling" about the frantic actions of the boy
who was struggling so desperately out in the lake. He was threshing the
water furiously, now vanishing partly underneath, only to come up again
in a whirl of bubbles.
When a cramp seizes any one, no matter if he should happen to be a
champion in the art of swimming, he is always in mortal peril of his
life, especially should he be at some distance from the shore, and in
deep water. It almost paralyzes every muscle, and the strongest becomes
like a very babe in its spasmodic clutch.
Joel Jackman was long-legged and thin, but had always been reckoned one
of those wiry sort of chaps, built on the order of a greyhound. He could
run like the wind, and jump higher than any fellow in all Chester,
barring none. But when that awful cramp seized him in the cold water of
Lake Constance, lie found himself unable to make any progress toward
shore, distant at least fifty feet.
It was all he could do to keep his head above water, struggling as he
was with the fear of a terrible death before his eyes. His two comrades
were running up and down on the shore; not that they were such arrant
cowards but what they would have been willing to do almost anything to
help Joel; but unfortunately they had lost their heads in the sudden
shock; and as Toby afterwards contemptuously said, "acted like so many
chickens after the ax had done its foul work."
Jack sized up the situation like a flash.
"Toby, you get one of those boards over yonder, and come out to help me
if I'm in trouble, understand?" he jerked out, even as the flivver came
to a sudden stop, and he was bounding over the side regardless of any
exit.
"All right, Jack; you bet I will!" Toby shouted, following suit.
Jack began to shed his outer clothes as he ran swiftly forward. First
his cap went, and then his coat. He had low shoes on so that he was able
to detach them with a couple of quick jerks, and at the loss of the
laces.
Two seconds, when at the verge of the water, sufficed for him to get rid
of his trousers, and then, he went in with a rush.
Toby meanwhile had tried to follow suit even as he made for the boards
in question. It had been just like Jack to glimpse these in the
beginning, while those other fellows apparently did not know a board was
within half a mile.
Seeing what Toby meant to do, the two swimmers followed suit, so that
presently the whole three of them had each picked up a plank, and were
pushing out with it.
Jack had plunged ahead, swimming in any old way, since his one object
just then was speed, and not style. He could not have done better had he
been up against a swarm of rivals working for a prize. Well, there
_was_ a prize dangling there in plain sight. A precious human life
was at stake, and unless he could arrive in time poor Joel might go
down, never to come up again in his senses.
He had already been under once, and through his desperate efforts
succeeded in reaching the surface of the agitated water again. Even as
Jack started swimming, after getting in up to his neck, the drowning boy
vanished again.
Jack swam on, trying to increase his pace, if such a thing were
possible. He must get on the spot without the waste of a second. Joel
would likely come to the surface again, but battling more feebly against
the threatening fate. If he went down a third time it would be all over
but the funeral, Jack knew.
He was more than two-thirds of the way there when to his ecstatic joy he
once more discovered the head of Joel. The boy was still making a
gallant fight, but under a fearful handicap.
Jack shouted hoarsely as he swam onward:
"Keep fighting, Joel! We'll get you, old chap! Strike out as hard as you
can! You're all right, I tell you, only don't stop working!"
Perhaps these cheering words did help Joel to continue his weakening
efforts to keep himself afloat. Possibly had it not been for his hearing
Jack's voice raised in encouragement, he might have given up the ghost
before then.
Nearer Jack surged, his heart seeming to be in his throat with dread
lest Joel go down again a few seconds before he could get within touch.
The three boys with the boards were also coming along in a solid bunch,
although of course with less speed than Jack showed, owing partly to the
fact that they had to shove the planks before them.
Now, Joel, with a last despairing gurgle was sinking again, and for the
very last time, being utterly exhausted by his frantic struggles, and
the terrible pain occasioned by the cramp.
But Jack knew he had arrived close enough to dart forward and clutch his
comrade before the other could quite vanish from view. Joel was so far
gone that he did not try to grip his rescuer, as most drowning persons
will do in their frantic desire to save themselves at any cost.
Jack tried to keep the boy's head above water as best he could. He made
no effort to swim towards the shore. What was the use when the other
fellows were coming along with their boards. The one thing necessary
just then was to prevent Joel from swallowing any more water; he had
already no doubt gulped in huge quantities, and lost the ability to
breathe properly.
So Toby and the other two found them when they finally arrived. The
planks were arranged so that Joel could be raised and sustained by their
means; after which the little procession of swimmers headed for the
bank.
When they arrived, Joel was lifted out of the water and carried tenderly
up to a patch of green sward lying in the shade of a wide-branching oak.
Here they laid him down on his chest, while Jack proceeded to work over
him, instructing the other fellows just what they were to do to assist.
He knelt astride with one knee on either side of Joel's body, and
commenced pressing down regularly on the small of his back, so as to
induce an artificial respiration. At the same time, Toby and one of the
other fellows worked the unconscious boy's arms back and forth like a
pair of pistons; while the third fellow started to rub his cold lower
extremities.
At first Joel seemed pretty far gone, and his appearance sent a chill
through the sympathetic heart of Toby Hopkins. But after they had kept
up this vigorous treatment for a little while, there were signs of
returning animation. Joel belched out a gallon of water, Toby always
insisted, and inside of ten minutes was able to talk, though Jack
insisted on keeping up the rubbing until the boy's body was a rosy hue
from the irritation.
"Now get some clothes on, Joel, and you'll soon be feeling prime," he
told the other, whose lips were still blue and quivering.
Joel had had quite enough of swimming for one day. Indeed, he would be
pretty cautious about getting any distance away from the shore after
that, having received a most fearful shock. Still, boys recover from
such things, given a little time, and Joel had always been reckoned a
fellow who did not know the meaning of the word "fear."
The other boys had apparently lost the joy of bathing for that day.
They, too, started to don their clothes, and begged Toby to "hold up,"
so that they might get a lift to town in the flivver; which, being a
whole-souled fellow, of course, "Hop" was only too glad to do.
Later on, after arriving home, Jack and Toby talked matters over between
themselves. This new and entirely unexpected happening had been only
another link in the growing chain of troubles hanging over the head of
the captain of the Chester baseball team.
"What if we hadn't chanced to be on the road just at that very minute,
Jack?" ventured Toby, with a shiver; "poor old Joel would certainly have
been drowned, because neither Frank nor Rufus had the slightest idea
what to do so as to save him. And that would have broken up our
combination in the nine, all right, because we'd find it hard to replace
such a runner and fielder and batter as Joel."
"Of course," said Jack, "the worst thing of all would be losing a
friend. Joel is a mighty fine all-around fellow, and most of us are fond
of him. And just as you say, the game would like as not have to be
postponed, because how could we play as we would want to with a chum
lying dead at home? So I'm grateful because we did chance to be
Johnny-on-the-spot."
"That was sure a great job you did, Jack, believe me; and when I say
such a thing I'm not meaning to throw bouquets either. Whee! but you did
shoot through the water like a fish. I've watched a pickerel dart at a
minnow, but no slinker ever had the bulge on you that time."
"I had to get along with all sail set," Jack told him, with a smile, for
it is always pleasant to have a friend hand out a meed of praise, even
to the most modest boy going. "I knew Joel was at the last gasp, and
even a second lost might mean he'd go down for the third time before I
could get there. And yet do you know, Toby, it seemed to me right then
and there as if I had a ton of lead fastened to me. Why, I felt as
though something was holding me back, just as you know the nightmare
grips you usually. But when I was within striking distance, I knew I
could save Joel. He made a gallant fight, and deserves a lot of praise."
"I wonder what we'll have happen next, Jack? Seems to me not a day
passes but you've got to play the rescue act with some member of our
team. There was Fred worrying you, and still acting queer; then along
comes Donohue threatening to give us the slip because his folks meant to
move out of town, and he couldn't pitch unless he lived in Chester. Now,
as if those things didn't count up enough to keep you awake nights, old
Joel had to go and try to kick the bucket, and force you to yank him out
of the lake."
Jack laughed and shook his head.
"It's hard to tell what another day may bring forth, Toby," he went on
to say. "Remember, this is only Thursday, and Friday is said to be a
very unlucky day in some people's lives, especially when it falls on the
thirteenth of the month, as happens this year. There are still a few
fellows in the nine who haven't shown up yet in the catastrophe ward.
Why, Toby, it might even be _you_ who'll wave the flag and call out
for help."
"I give you my affidavit, Jack, that I'm going to play mighty safe from
now on. No fishing or swimming for me, and I'll even run that old
flivver at slow speed, for fear it takes a notion to land me in a ditch,
and come in on top of me. But I hope, Jack, you're not getting
discouraged with all these things coming right along?"
"I might, Toby, if I were not built on a stubborn line. We'll go to
Harmony on Saturday and make a fight for that game even if we have to
lug along a crippled nine, some of them on crutches!"
Toby brightened up on hearing the leader grimly say this.
"That's the sort of stuff, Jack!" he exclaimed, slapping his chum on the
back.
"In the bright lexicon of youth there is no such word as fail! We'll go
forth with our hearts set on victory, and that's one half of the battle.
Hurrah! for Chester!"