by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER V
THE RESCUE
Jimmy realized that there was no help to be had from outside. There wasno one at home but Mrs. Abel, and rowing the skiff alone against thetide fully four hours would be consumed in reaching there and anotherthree hours in coming back. Then it would be well past dark. An easterlybreeze was springing up, and a chop was rising on the bay. Thiseasterly wind was likely to bring with it a cold storm, and Bobby,suspended thirty feet above the water, and not warmly dressed, mightperish.
"Yes," said Jimmy, "he might perish! He might perish! And it would be myfault!"
The thought brought a cold perspiration to Jimmy's forehead, and a cold,unnatural feeling to his spine, and in desperation he tried the lineagain. But it was useless effort. He could not pull it up. And again heran to the cliff, crawled out and peered over at the dangling and by nomeans silent Bobby.
"Hey there, Jimmy! Pull me up! Hurry!" shouted Bobby.
"I can't! I can't budge you! Oh, Bobby, what are we going to do?"
"If you can't pull me up, let me down!" Bobby was growing impatient. "Ican't stand this much longer. The line is cutting me in two."
"Try to climb up the line," suggested Jimmy, the idea striking him as abright one. "Just climb up, and when you get up here where I can reachyou I'll pull you over."
Bobby tried the experiment, but the line was oily, and in spite of hisbest efforts he could climb only a little way, when he would slide backagain.
"I can't do it," he shouted up to Jimmy, after several vain efforts."The line is too greasy. I can't get a good hold."
"I don't know what to do!" said the distressed Jimmy. "I don't know whatto do!"
"If you can't pull me up, let me down," directed Bobby.
"Hurry, Jimmy. I can't hang here much longer. I'm gettingall numb"]
"That won't do any good," said Jimmy. "You'll only go into the water anddrown, for there's no place for you to stand."
"Well," Bobby insisted, "let me down nearer the water. I feel all thetime as though the line was going to break, and I'm so high up from itthat it makes me dizzy swinging around this way."
"Holler when you want me to stop," shouted Jimmy, rising and runningback.
But Jimmy found that after all he could let Bobby down only a verylittle way when he came to the end of the line. So he fastened it again.
"That's as far as it will go!" he called, lying down on his face againto look over the cliff at Bobby, who was now about twenty feet above thewater.
"Then go and get the boat and fetch it down," shouted Bobby. "Hurry,Jimmy. I can't hang here much longer. I'm getting all numb."
That was a solution of the difficulty that had not occurred to Jimmy,and without delay he ran away along the cliff top and down to the skiff,which was lying a half mile above, and, undoing the painter, rowed withall his might toward Bobby, until presently he drew up directly beneaththe swinging lad.
"Can you unfasten the line and drop into the boat, Bobby?" he asked,gazing up.
"No," decided Bobby, glancing at the skiff, which rose and fell on theswell, and which Jimmy was holding dangerously near the breaking waveson the cliff base. "I might hit the boat but I'd break my neck, andmaybe tip you over. Stand her off a little, and I'll show you."
He felt in his pocket for his jackknife, drew it out and opened it. Thenwith his left hand he succeeded, after several attempts, in liftinghimself sufficiently to relieve the strain of his body, and with thejackknife in his right hand cut the line where it circled his body belowthe arms.
Hanging now by his left hand he deliberately and coolly closed the knifeby pushing the back of the blade against his leg, and restored it to hispocket. This done he grasped the line with his right hand just above thebowline knot, where he had a firm hold, slipped his other hand down toit, and began swinging in toward the cliff and out over the waves, andthen on an outward swing, let go. Down he went, well away from therocks, feet first into the deep water, and, a moment later, appearing onthe surface, swam to the skiff, grasped it astern, and climbed aboard,shivering from his icy bath.
"Oh, Bobby, you're a wonder!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I never would havethought of that way of your getting off that line!"
"'Twasn't anything," declared Bobby, deprecatingly, as he seated himselfand picked up his oars. "Now let's pull back where we can put on a fire.I'm freezing cold."
"I was scared when I found I couldn't pull you up," said Jimmy, as theyrowed back to the gully. "Wasn't you?"
"No, I wasn't scared," boasted Bobby. "I was just getting cold andnumb. The worst of it is I had to drop my bag with all the eggs Ipicked off the cliff. I had some dandies, too! Two of them were theprettiest eggs I _ever_ saw--real small at one end and big at the other,and all colored and marked and spotted up. They were different from anyeggs I ever saw, too."
"Did you find 'em together, or separate?"
"Found 'em separate, on different ledges."
"I know what _they_ were! They were murre eggs. Murre eggs are differentfrom any other kind. They've got more colors and marks on 'em. Partnerfound some last year."
"There were some murres down on the water, but I never thought they'd goup to lay their eggs in places like that. The eggs were right on thebare rock, and weren't in a nest at all, and if it wasn't for theirshape they'd have rolled off."
"It's a strange place for any bird to leave eggs, but that's where thekittiwakes, auks and swimmers and some of the gulls and lots of birdsmake nests and lay eggs. I suppose it's so as to make it hard to findthem when folks go egging. Partner tells me lots, and I ask lots ofquestions, because he says the more I know about the way birds andanimals live and the things they do, the better I'll be able to hunt andtake care of myself."
In spite of his exertion at the oars, Bobby's teeth were chattering whenthey landed at the place where they had cooked their dinner. But it wasnot long before Jimmy had a roaring fire and the kettle over for somehot tea, and then, leaving Bobby to dry his clothes, Jimmy climbed upagain over the cliff to recover Abel's harpoon line, which was much toovaluable to be left behind.
At this season of the year the days are long in Labrador, and though itwas nearly eleven o'clock at night when the boys reached home, it wasstill twilight. Mrs. Abel was on the lookout for them, and had a finepan of fried trout and steaming pot of tea waiting on the table, for sheknew they would be hungry, as boys who live in the open always are. Andshe praised them for the fine lot of eggs they brought her, and laughedvery heartily over Bobby's adventure, for in that land adventure is apart of life, and all in a day's work.