CHAPTER XVIII
MOTHER WIT TO THE RESCUE
The young ruffian who was so notorious about the Four Corners wasreally in a serious predicament. In making a long cast the boulder hadrolled under him and, being precipitated into the pond, he was pinnedto the bottom by his legs. The two boys with him had sprung into thepond, and were now wet to their necks; but they could not roll backthe heavy boulder.
Just as Laura and Chet, with their school mates, arrived Hebe sankback with a gurgle, and the water went over his head. He had beenbarely able to keep his mouth and nostrils out of water until thatmoment.
"Hebe's gettin' drowned! Hebe's gettin' drowned!" yelled Mike, thevictim's young brother, dancing up and down on the shore.
"Get in there at once and hold his head up!" commanded Laura Belding."Then we'll roll away the stone. But he _will_ drown if you don't holdhim up."
Mike did as he was bid. When Hebe got his breath again he began to uselanguage that was unfit for the girls to hear, at least.
"Say!" exclaimed Chet, his eyes blazing, "you stop that or I'll holdyour head under the water myself. What kind of a fellow are you,anyway?"
Hebe gasped and kept still. Perhaps he had scarcely realized who thepeople were about him. Laura said:
"Can't you boys, all together, roll away that stone?"
"We'll try," said Lance, already beginning to strip off his shoes andstockings. "Come ahead, Chet."
They made even Purt Sweet join them, bare-footed and with theirtrousers rolled up as far as they would go. They waded in and gotaround the rock. Hebe was in a sitting posture, and the weight of thestone bore both his legs down into the muddy bottom. But there washard-pan under the mud, and it was impossible to drag the victim frombeneath the huge rock.
But the boys couldn't even jar the rock. It had slipped from the bankand rolled a little, and now it was settling slowly into the ooze,bearing Hebe's legs down under it.
The situation was serious in the extreme. Slowly, as Hebe settledbeneath the rock, the water was creeping up about his lips and nose.Although he held his head back the water would, in time, rise abovehis mouth. And the rise was as steady as a tide.
Again and again Chet Belding and his comrades tried to push the hugerock over. But, as at first, they could not even budge it. Mike beganto cry again. Hebe said, gruffly:
"I reckon I gotter croak, eh? This ain't no nice way to die, you bet!"
"Die--nothing!" cried Laura.
She ran back to the car and tore the piece of rubber pipe away fromthe bulb of the horn. Handing this to Hebe, she showed him how hecould lie back in a more comfortable position, if he wished, andbreathe through the tube. She produced some cotton, too, so that hecould stop his ears and nostrils.
"Now, you keep up your courage," Mother Wit told him. "We'll soon finda way of getting you out of this. You're not dead yet."
Hebe said nothing, but he watched her, when his eyes were above water,with a grateful air.
"But I tell you, Laura, we can't begin to start this stone even,"growled Chet, in her ear. "You will have to think of something betterthan _this_."
"So I will," cried Laura. "I'll think of a rope."
"A rope?"
"Yes. A good, strong one. One that will go around that rock and thenbe plenty long enough to hitch to one of the cars--the big car. Ibelieve we can start the rock that way."
"Hurrah!" cried Lance. "She's got the idea! What do you say, Chet?"
"Looks like it. But how about the rope? Where'll we get it?"
"We got a goot one at our house," said Otto, who was sitting down,puffing, after having strained at the rock. "Dot hay rope, he be juistde t'ing."
"The hay rope for ours, then," cried Chet. "Come on, Otto. We'll goafter it!"
He started for the machines, the Swiss youth after him. They got inthe Belding car immediately and started the engine. Purt Sweet sprangup with a yell and ran along the shore of the pond after the car.
"Oh, oh! Stop!" he shrieked.
But Chet did not hear him. Lance caught Pretty by the arm and demandedto know what he was yelling about.
"Why," gasped Purt, "they've driven off with a whole lot of the lunchthe girls spread on the seats. And look at them go! Why! it'll all bejoggled onto the floor of the tonneau before they get back."
"Oh--_you_!" exclaimed Lance, balked for words with which to expresshis contempt.
The Belding car was quickly out of sight. The boys and girls gatheredaround the spot where Hebe Pocock had met with his accident. Nobodycould help him, and he began to be in extreme pain. His head was underwater a good deal of the time; but the piece of rubber pipe allowedhim to breathe, and Mike, or the other smaller boy from the FourCorners, held Hebe's face above water as much as possible.
Chet and Otto were not gone an hour; but it seemed, as Lance said, "acreation of time." Pocock was pretty weak when the rope was brought.Meanwhile the chauffeur had run the big car along the road and backedit near the rock and headed in the proper direction. They passed theheavy cable around the boulder and then wrapped it around the car sothat the strain would not come in any one place and perhaps do the cardamage.
"You bigger boys get in there," said Laura, "and take Hebe under thearms. As soon as the rock moves pull him out. For the rope may slipand the rock slide back deeper into the water than it is now. Thatwould kill him, perhaps."
"You're right, Laura," said her brother, gravely. "We'll take care."
Chet and Lance went to the aid of the unfortunate youth. Otto managedthe rope. The chauffeur started his engine and got into his seat.
"Ready! start easily," called Laura, when the boys were placeddirectly behind Hebe.
The car lurched forward; the rope strained and creaked; then--slowlybut surely--the rock began to move.
"Easy, boys!" commanded Laura.
Hebe shrieked with pain. The boulder rolled and the rope slipped. Butthe two boys darted back into deeper water, dragging the victim of theaccident with them.
It was all over and Hebe was released in a few seconds. But he hadlost consciousness and they carried him out and put him into theBelding car.
"Shall we take him home?" Chet demanded.
"He ought to have a doctor at once," said Laura. "Better still, heought to be taken to the hospital."
"That's what we'll do," said Chet, quickly. "Lance, you and Purt comewith me. We'll make him easy in the tonneau. And gee! here's theluncheon all in a jumble."
"What did I tell you?" wailed Prettyman.
"Oh, get in! get in!" exclaimed Chet. "You can stuff your face withall those goodies while we ride into town. And maybe this poor fellowwill come to his senses and try Nellie's lemon meringue pie--it's adandy, Nellie!"
By the shortest road they could take--through the Four Corners--the rideto the City Hospital was bound to occupy an hour--and another toreturn. Meanwhile the remainder of the party had their lunch and thenwent after the nut harvest. Despite the incident of the woundedPocock, the day ended happily enough and they went home at dusk withstores of chestnuts and shellbarks.
The Beldings were late, of course, and Mammy Jinny, their old blackcook, held back dinner for them, but with many complaints.
"It's jest de beatenes' what disher fambly is a-comin' to," shegrumbled, as she helped wait at table when the family had gathered forthe belated meal. "Gits so, anyhow, dat de hull on youse is out 'mostall day long. Eberything comes onter Mammy's shoulders."
"That's all right, Jinny. They're good and broad," said Mr. Belding,for she was a privileged character.
"Ya--as. Dat's wot youse allus say, Mars' Belding. Den dere was dewatah man come ter bodder we-uns. Sech a combobberation I never dosee. I tol' him we nebber drink no tap watah, but has it bro't inbottles, same as nice fo'ks does----"
"The water man?" repeated Mrs. Belding, curiously. "I can't imaginewho that could be."
"Ya--as, ma'am!" exclaimed Mammy Jinny, who certainly loved the soundof long words, and hard words. "He come yere enquiratin' erb
out detuberculosis in de watah."
"Crickey jacks!" gasped Chet, choking. "What's that?"
"My son!" begged his mother. "Please do not use such awfulexpressions. You are worse than Jinny."
"Ain't nothin' de matter wid wot I sez!" declared the old black woman."Dat's wot he wanted ter know erbout--de tuberculosis in de watah."
Mr. Belding recovered his breath. "Was by chance the man asking aboutthe _consumption_ of water, Jinny?" he asked.
"Dat's it," said the black woman. "Same t'ing, ain't it? Miss Laurasay so. 'Consumption' an' 'tuberculosis' jes de same--heh?"
"That's one on you, Laura!" shouted Chet, as Mammy Jinny indignantlywaddled out. "Shouldn't teach Mammy words of more than one 'syllabub.'You've been warned before.
"By the way," he added, for they had told their parents about theadventure of the afternoon, "that Pocock is in the ward with the manHester Grimes saved from the forest fire--right in the next bed toBillson. Pocock had both legs broken, the doctors told me--one abovethe knee and the other below. He's going to have a bad time of it."
"Pocock, eh?" said Mr. Belding. "Hebron Pocock is the name of theperson who applied to the Board of Education for the job of watchmanat the girls' gymnasium. I believe he gave Henry Grimes as reference.But I think we shall keep Jackway. He's a faithful soul and, whoevergot into the gym. and did that damage, I am convinced that it was notJackway's fault."
"No; it wasn't Jackway's fault," muttered Chet to Laura. "But I guesswe could find the person at fault pretty easily, eh?"
The Girls of Central High at Basketball; Or, The Great Gymnasium Mystery Page 18