Sleepy had grasped Annie, who was now engulfed up to her knees. Of course he was about the worst person among us to have got first to her rescue because of his great weight. He gave a tremendous pull, grasping Annie around her waist. She came out of the sand making a noise like a whole drove of cattle lifting their hoofs out of the mud. Annie was perfectly limp with fright. She clung to George Ma.s.sie like some little panic-stricken child.
The frantic Rags reached the sand bar immediately behind Sleepy, and Harvie swam him a close second. The water was quite deep within a few feet of the fatal spot that the innocent Annie had chosen as the best place to dry her hair. The beach of quicksand shelved suddenly into swimming depth. As Harvie and Rags stepped from this swimming hole into shallow water they realized that they, too, had hurled themselves into danger. They stuck fast.
Annie clung desperately to George. Her eyes were closed and she was so pale I thought she must have fainted. It was a few moments before the rest of the party realized that the three youths were being slowly sucked down. They knew it, however, from the moment they touched the bar.
"Throw Annie out into the water!" said Harvie hoa.r.s.ely. Annie had not fainted as I had thought, for at these words she clung so desperately to poor Sleepy that he could not loose her hands.
Harvie reached over and unclasped them, holding them tightly until Sleepy could raise her up farther in his arms to throw her.
"Float, Annie! You can float!" shouted Dee. "Do as I tell you!"
Annie, ever inclined to obedience, spread her arms out as she struck the water and floated off as neatly as some well-built yacht launched for the first time. Of course the others grabbed her as soon as she got to them.
By this time Zebedee and I had the little brown boat to the rescue. We came alongside the poor stick-in-the-muds.
"Take Sleepy first!" cried the other two. "He"s in worse than we are."
Taking Sleepy first was no joke. He had sunk at least a foot and a half.
Zebedee tugged at him and Sleepy tugged at himself. The little boat almost capsized and still the young giant could not pull his feet out of the treacherous mire.
"You are not in far, Rags; come on and help trim the boat," I insisted, paddling the stern around in reach of Rags. He caught hold and with a quick spring was in the boat.
"Now, Harvie!" I commanded. "We can"t get Sleepy unless you come help."
I knew perfectly well that Harvie had a notion he must not get in the boat until his friend was saved. In the meantime, Zebedee was struggling to raise Sleepy and the boat was in sad need of ballast.
Harvie did as I bade him and with a mighty effort extricated himself and landed in the boat. The legs of both the boys were covered with mire up to their knees.
All the time we were doing this, the rest of the party was not idle. Of course some of them had to look after the frightened Annie. Dum and Billy Somers had struck out immediately for the red boat which was beached on the far side of the island, realizing as they soon did that the only way to get the boys out of the quicksand was by boat. Mary and Shorty also made for the canoe, thinking it might be needed, too.
Glad we were when the red boat came alongside of ours and we could lash them together to make more purchase for Sleepy. The little brown boat did not have weight enough to do the job alone. And now with a long pull and a strong pull and a pull all together, we at last got him out.
If when Annie got her feet out of the sand she made a noise like a drove of cattle lifting their hoofs out of the mud, you can fancy what the noise was when Sleepy came out. It was like a great ground swell, and so much water had that young giant displaced, when he removed his bulk I am sure the depth of the creek was perceptibly lowered.
Now it was all over we could giggle, which Dum and I did until Zebedee got really outdone with us and threatened to box us both. It had been a close shave and he felt it was not a time for giggling, but Dum and I were no respecters of time or place. When the giggles struck us, giggle we must.
"If it had not been for your quickness, Page, it might have been a very serious tragedy," he said solemnly. "I never thought of the boats but was going to swim to Annie"s a.s.sistance."
"I have seen this quicksand before. I almost lost one of my dogs several years ago. He started out in the creek to get a stick I had thrown for him and as soon as he touched the sand he began to sink. I never heard such cries as he gave trying to pull his feet out. I got two fence-rails and crawled out to him and pulled him in. Father nearly had a fit when I told him about it. He sent men down and had the creek dredged."
"I think we should put a sign up here," said Harvie, and a few days later he did paint "Danger" on a sign and came back to Croxton"s Ford and planted it at the fatal spot.
It had been a very trying experience, but young people don"t brood over things that might have been serious. That is something left to the so-called philosophy of old age. By the time we were in dry clothes and on our way home, the fact that some of our party had been in a fair way to losing their lives seemed something to be joked about.
Of course poor Sleepy came in for his share, but much he cared. He stretched himself at Annie"s feet, and possessing himself of a little corner of her sweater, which he clutched tightly in his great hand just as a little baby might cling to its mother"s dress, he dropped off into a sleep of exhaustion. He looked very peaceful and happy as he lay there and Annie looked down on his handsome head with affection and admiration in her blue eyes.
"I know one thing," announced Rags; "I"ll never see sticky fly-paper again without thinking of this day. I felt exactly like a poor fly stuck fast in tanglefoot. I am sure my legs are a foot longer than they were when I left Maxton this morning." As Ben Raglan"s legs were abnormally long, we all devoutly hoped that the stretching was not permanent.
Proportioned somewhat like a clothes-pin, he could not stand much lengthening of limb.
"Shorty, it"s too bad you weren"t first aid man this time," teased Harvie. "It might have made a man of you. All you need is a good stretching."
"Wait until I get you where Aunt Milly can"t help you and I"ll give you the pounding you need," answered the boy, as he paddled the canoe in the wake of the launch.
Aunt Milly was comfortably ensconced in the seat of honor, sleeping the sleep of the just and generous chaperone.
CHAPTER XIV
A YOUNGER SON
WE found Miss Maria much improved but still bed-ridden. She said Wink"s medicine was the most efficacious she had ever had, as it had given her a day of rest free from pain. I fancy the quiet had done her as much good as the medicine. She regretted to report that Mr. Pore had telephoned a peremptory message to the effect that Annie should come home the first thing in the morning and bring her clothes.
"Now isn"t that the limit?" stormed Dum. "What on earth can he want? We haven"t but three more days here and it seems to me he might----" But Annie looked so pained that Dum didn"t say what he might do.
"He needs me, I fancy," said Annie sadly.
"So do we need you! And how about Sleepy and Harvie and Rags?" But Annie didn"t know how about them, so she only blushed.
"Maybe you can come back," I suggested.
"No, I fancy not, or why should he say I must bring my clothes?"
All of us were at a loss to fathom the behavior of Mr. Pore, but we were too tired to discuss it farther. We were thankful for the time we had been able to wrest Annie from his selfish demands. I was sorry, indeed, that Zebedee had attended to his old freight for him. I heartily agreed with Dum"s sentiments which she muttered under her breath:
"Pig!"
"Anyhow, we are going down with you," declared Mary.
"But I must go before breakfast," said Annie.
"Well, we can travel on an empty stomach quite as well as you can and a great deal weller," insisted Dum, and Dee and Mary and I agreed.
"Please don"t awaken me," said Jessie as she twisted her hair into the patent curlers that she managed so well n.o.body but a girl could have told that her curls were not natural. "I certainly want to sleep in the morning. Dr. White begged me to go rowing with him before breakfast, but I can"t bear to get up so early in the morning. It seemed to distress him terribly but then he is such a flirt one can never tell." All this with many glances in my direction.
We had gathered in the room occupied by Tweedles and Jessie for a little chat before turning in for the night.
"How cr-u-le!" exclaimed Mary. "What makes you think he is such a flirt?"
"Ah, that would be telling!" and Jessie began dabbing on the cold cream.
It is strange how indifferent some girls are to what other girls think of them. Jessie Wilc.o.x, the most careful person in the world to look well when any males were around, did not mind in the least letting us see her with her hair twisted up in little wads and clasped with innumerable arrangements made of wire covered with leather. The things looked like huge ticks sticking out from her head, not such a shapely head, either, now that one saw it with the hair drawn back so tightly.
Cold cream may be a future beautifier but certainly not a present one.
She laid it on in generous hunks and then ma.s.saged herself, contorting her countenance in a most disconcerting manner.
"I don"t think Wink is a flirt at all," said Dee stoutly. "He is a very good friend of mine and I reckon I know him about as well as anybody in the world. Of course he will flirt if it is up to him, but that is not making him a flirt."
"Ah, indeed!" and Jessie began rubbing cocoa b.u.t.ter on her neck.
"Perhaps you don"t know the flirtatious side of him."