CHAPTER XXI
A HELPING HAND
"What is he doing?"
"What a queer boat!"
"Sometimes it's in the water, and again it's on the ice!"
"No matter! He's coming to save us, and it's high time! There goesanother chunk off our ice raft!"
It was Betty who gave voice to the last, and Grace, Amy and Mollie inturn, who had expressed the other sentiments. All were true in theirway. The man did certainly seem to be advancing in a peculiar manner. Attimes he appeared to be rowing, or padding, and again he propelledhimself over a big cake of ice, pushing himself along by means of shortpoles on either side of the boat.
And, as Mollie had said, at times he was in the water, and again glidingover the ice. What Betty had said was but too true. Now and then, with astartling report, the big floe on which rested the auto ice boatcontaining the girls would be lessened by a great chunk, that wouldbreak off, and go floating away.
"Oh, hurry! Do, please, hurry!" breathed Grace, as she sat huddled closebeside Amy, gazing now and then into the ice-encumbered black water thatseemed momentarily to be encroaching on their margin of safety.
"We can never all get in that boat!" decided Amy, as the man alternatelypushed and paddled it toward them. "It will only hold two, and he'llhave to make four trips. It may be too late--for the last one!"
"He's doing all he can," said Betty. "Perhaps the boat will hold morethan you think." But, even as she said this she looked askance at thepeculiar craft. Clearly it was small, and at most could hold but three.There would be danger in this even. And it would necessitate two tripsat best. This delay, with the constantly-decreasing size of the floemeant danger for two of them.
"Hold on, ladies, I'm coming!!" cried the man in the boat. "I'll soonhave you safe ashore. Don't jump, whatever you do, or you'll be groundto pieces by the ice cakes!"
"Cheerful prospect," remarked Betty grimly.
Amy and Grace did not try to conceal the tears in their eyes. Molliewas more like the Little Captain--brave and hopeful. Not that Grace andAmy were cowards--far from it--but they had not the buoyant reservestrength of their chums.
"Steady now, and I'll have you!" cried the man. He had come to a halt inhis boat on a big swirling cake, which was keeping pace with theprogress of the one containing the ice boat. "I'm going to make a linefast to you," the man explained, "and take my end ashore. Then I canhaul you in. I don't dare risk taking you off in the boat. The ice isbreaking up too fast. Stand by now, to catch the line I'm going tothrow."
He was kneeling in his queer craft, and the girls could now see that itwas made for just such work as this. It was a small punt, capable ofbeing rowed or paddled. And to enable it to slide over the ice twostrips of iron, for runners, extended along the bottom from stem tostern, just under the lower and outer edges of the boat's sides. Inother words it was a combined sled and boat. It was a type much used bymuskrat-hunters who have to seek their quarry on flooded meadows thatoften freeze over uncertainly.
"Here you go!" shouted the man. "Make this line fast to the forwardpart of your boat. How are the runners; well sunk in?"
"Yes!" answered Betty, glancing to make sure. The steel runners of thecross-piece of the craft, as well as the steering plates in the rear,had, because of the fact that the boat had been stationary so long, sunkdeep into the soft ice. The _Spider_ was firmly anchored.
"The rope will hold better on your craft, than on the ice itself," theman explained after he had thrown it. "Have you made it fast?"
"Yes!" cried Mollie, who had assisted Betty in catching the line, andtaking a couple of turns about a strong cleat.
"Oh, do please hurry and--and save us!" panted Grace.
"I will, miss. Don't be skeered," said their rescuer kindly. The girlscould see that he was a burly lumberman, but no one they had ever metbefore, as far as any of them could remember.
"I'll have you ashore soon," he added. "I'll make as good time back as Ican, though it's ticklish work, for the ice is going out fast. It'searly for it, too, and the river will freeze up again bad. But don'tworry. Your floe will hold until I get you all ashore. Just sit tight,and don't worry!"
"But we--we can't help it," half whispered Amy.
The man, having tossed the rope which Betty and Mollie secured, nowarranged the coils in the bottom of his boat so that it would pay outwithout tangling.
"I was just passing when I saw your pickle," he told them. "Lucky I hadthe rope with me, and I knew old Muskrat Ike must have his punt hidalong the bank somewhere. I routed it out and here I am. Now I'm off.Keep up your spirits!" he called with a smile.
With two short, iron shod and pointed poles he shoved his boat aroundand off the floe where he had halted. Into the water plunged the queercraft, and then the man paddled. He slid the shelving, pointed prow outon another ice cake and thus, alternately progressing, he neared theshore.
As he approached it, narrowly watched by the girls, who cast occasionalglances at their own floe, Betty uttered a cry.
"There are the boys!"
Three figures could be seen hurrying down to the edge of the ice-filledriver, and it needed but a glance to show that they were Will, Frank andAllen.
In another minute or two the lumberman, in his queer boat, had reachedthe shore. Out he leaped, and shoving his punt to one side he beganhauling on the rope that was fast to the ice-anchored auto craft, therope forming a slender bridge to the land. Slowly the ice-floe began toapproach the shore, shoving the lesser cakes aside.
But now a new danger presented itself. As long as the big floe had gonedown with the current it had not been struck hard by other chunks ofice, since all were moving at the same rate of speed. Now, as the bigfloe was hauled cross-ways to the current, other cakes collided with it,breaking off large chunks.
"There won't be anything left when we get ashore," cried Grace. "We'regoing to pieces fast!"
"Don't get excited!" advised Mollie. "We'll be all right," but shewatched with eager eyes the progress they were making, and theever-decreasing size of their floe.
"The boys are going to help him!" cried Mollie. "Now we will movefaster."
Will and the others, reaching the side of the lumberman, and seeing hisplan, laid hold of the rope with him, and hauled with all their might.Then, indeed, the floe containing the ice boat did move toward shoremore quickly. And to such good purpose did the rescuers haul that, in ashort time, the cake grounded in shallow water, with one point so nearshore that the girls could leap across the intervening water safely.
And it was only just in time, for when Betty, who insisted on being thelast to leave the boat, landed, the cake split in half, and the _Spider_was partly submerged.
"What luck!" cried Will, as he clasped his sister's hand. "Whateverpossessed you girls to go out on a day like this?"
"Never mind asking questions now," replied Grace half-hysterically."We're safe! Better get your boat ashore boys."
"That's good advice," agreed Allen, and with the help of the lumbermanthe _Spider_ was hauled ashore, not in the least damaged. The girls werebeginning to recover their nerves now, though they were a trifle shaky.
"Let's get back to the cabin!" cried Grace. "Oh, I'll never go iceboating again."
"Not when the ice is like it was to-day," commented her brother."Franklin says he warned you."
"Oh, well, we didn't think we'd go so far," said Mollie. "We must thankthat man. Where is he?"
The lumberman, having replaced the queer punt where he had found it,was walking away, when Betty, running after him, cried:
"Oh, won't you let us know who you are? We want to thank you, and----"
"Oh that's all right," he said, with rough good-nature. "It was all inthe day's work. I've done the same thing before."
"But won't--won't you tell us who you are?" asked Allen.
"It doesn't matter. I'm a stranger around here, and I don't expect tostay. I'll be getting along," and he took off his fur cap and bowed. Itwas so evident that he did
not want to disclose this identity that theboys did not press him.
"But we can't thank you enough," said Mollie.
"The sight of your pretty faces is enough," he replied gallantly, andwith just the trace of a brogue. He smiled genially, bowed again andtramped off through the snow.
"How odd!" exclaimed Grace.
"Maybe he's one of the Jallow lumbermen, and didn't want it known thathe had done the Ford family a favor," suggested Will.
"Silly!" remarked his sister.
"Well, there's something queer about him anyhow," insisted Will. "Say,but you girls were in a pickle, all right."
"It was a whole jar full--with some olives thrown in," remarked Betty."Oh, I was so frightened!"
"You didn't show it, my dear," spoke Amy. "You were very brave!"
"Well, some one had to be. Not that you all weren't!" said Bettyquickly.
"When we got back, and Franklin said you'd gone off in the boat, and wesaw the ice breaking up, we were wild about you," spoke Will. "Westarted out to trace you, keeping on the high ground to see you quicker.But the lumberman beat us to it."
"Oh, I don't know what we should have done without him," declaredMollie.
"Well, let's get back to the cabin," voiced Will. "My feet are wet."
"And we'll all feel better for a cup of tea," added Mollie.
Behold them then, a little later, seated about a cosy fire, sipping tea,coffee or chocolate, according to their fancies, Mrs. Franklin havinginsisted on serving them. Soon the danger was but a poignant memory.
Days passed. The thaw spent itself and a freeze set in. Again there wasexcellent skating and ice boating, though the girls were a bit timid ofthe latter. Then came several winter affairs--parties in country-homesto which the girls were invited through the courtesy of Mrs. Franklin.
The girls enjoyed every one of them, and so did the boys. The winter wasapproaching its coldest spell. The Christmas holidays were not far off.Regarding the disputed claim, Mr. Jallow appeared to have matters in hisfavor. His men continued to cut the choice timber despite the protest ofMr. Ford, who was in despair at his inability to prove what he believedto be his right.
Alice Jallow and her friends remained in their winter cabin, but ourfriends saw little of them. Occasionally the boys met one another, butbeyond rather frigid greetings little was said.
A big snow storm put an end to ice sports and the boys and girls went infor snowshoes, no one being very expert on them, however. One afternoon,when the boys had gone to town for some supplies, Betty proposed thatthe girls go for a little tramp. It was not cold, and the snow, with aheavy crust, was just right for the "tennis racquets," as she somewhatgaily dubbed the snowshoes.
They walked for several miles, and were about to turn back, when,unexpectedly they came in sight of a little cabin in a snow-filledglade.
"I wonder who lives there?" said Amy.
"Don't go too close. It may be another bear trap," said Betty with alaugh.
"That's no trap!" insisted Grace. "It's a regular cabin. I'm going tolook in. Maybe an Indian used to live there, and we can find somerelics."
The others rather reluctantly followed as Grace advanced. She peered inone of the windows, and, as she uttered a cry the others heard adistinct groan.
"What--what's that?" gasped Amy.
"Some one is in there! I saw a man lying in a bunk!" exclaimed Grace,moving away.
As the girls hesitated, looking at one another with fear-blanched faces,they heard a hollow voice calling:
"Help! Help! Get me a doctor!"
"Some one is hurt!" cried Betty. "We must see who it is, and help."
"But it--it's a man!" gasped Grace. "I saw him!"
"Well, a man can need help as well as anyone else," said Mollie, indefense of her chum Betty. "Come--I'm not afraid."
Resolutely she went to the front door. It opened at her touch, and theothers, standing behind her saw a figure huddled up on a bunk builtagainst the cabin wall.
"Oh, thank the dear Lord some one has come!" groaned a man's voice."Will you please get a doctor or someone. My leg is broken, and I'vebeen without help for two days!"
Then his voice trailed off weakly.
"He's fainted!" cried Betty, hurrying to his side.
The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp Page 21