"Yet prodigals sometimes turn out better than elder brothers, if we accept the parable," remarked Rona, throwing stones into the water as viciously as if she were aiming at an enemy.
"Don"t!" said Ulyth. "You"ll disturb the trout, and Mrs. Arnold wants to fish this afternoon. Rona, do stop! Let"s go down to the edge again, and try and find some bog bean. You"ll get a proficiency badge if you can show twenty specimens of wild flowers and name them. Yes, I won mine last year, and so did Lizzie."
"I"d rather win a proficiency badge for shooting," grunted Rona. "Why can"t Teddie let us get up a ladies" rifle corps?"
"Only wish she would, just! It would be prime," agreed the others.
Dinner was ready by twelve o"clock--not at all too early for a company that had breakfasted at seven. Despite the purloining of the leg of mutton there was enough to go round, and everybody decided that the cooks deserved proficiency badges. The servers also did their work promptly, and removed plates and dishes with the maximum of speed and the minimum of clatter. By half-past one everything was washed up and polished, and the kitchen department in apple-pie order.
"I"m afraid we may have rain," said Miss Teddington, looking anxiously at the sky, which was now completely overcast with clouds.
"One often gets a shower among the mountains when the valley escapes,"
commented Mrs. Arnold. "I don"t think it will be much this afternoon, if there"s rain at all. The patrols know what to do if it begins. This grey sky will be good for fishing."
Mrs. Arnold was an enthusiastic angler, and had brought her fishing-tackle with her to camp. She intended that afternoon to hire a boat from the farm and see if she could beguile some of the wily trout from the lake.
"I"ll take four girls with me," she announced: "two to row, one to steer, and one to help with the landing-net."
Needless to say, she could have had dozens of volunteers, but her choice fell on Kathleen Simpson, Ruth White, Gladys Broughton, and Evie Isherwood, who, highly elated, went off to unmoor the boat. Then, Ruth and Kathleen rowing, and Gladys steering, they made gently down the lake towards the west end, where the stream flowed out.
Pretty Mrs. Arnold looked particularly charming in a blue-and-white boating-costume, with a little blue fisherman"s cap perched on her fair hair. It was the fashion for the girls to adore her, and she certainly had four whole-hearted admirers with her that afternoon, ready to be at her beck and call, and to perform any service she wished. They followed her instructions to the letter, and watched her line and reel with tense eagerness.
"I hope we may catch some salmon trout," said Mrs. Arnold; "they"re much more delicate than the ordinary ones. If we"ve luck we may get enough at any rate to give Miss Bowes and Miss Teddington a dish for supper. Row gently along there, I saw a fish jump; if it"s hungry it may fancy my fly. Good biz! there"s a bite. I"ll have to play him gently; he feels a strong fellow. Are you ready, Evie, with the landing-net?"
It was frightfully exciting as Mrs. Arnold wound her reel, and the prey came within reach. Was he really hooked, or would he break away at the last moment and disappoint them?
"We"ve got him! We"ve got him! Quick, Evie! Oh, I say! Isn"t he splendid?"
A silvery-grey, gleaming, glittering object was leaping in the landing-net at the bottom of the boat.
"Oh, what luck!" yelled Evie.
"He must be a patriarch!" cried the rowers.
"I can"t see him. Oh, do let me look!" squealed Gladys, forgetting everything in her eagerness. "Ruth, you"re in the way. I must look."
And up she sprang, trying to push past Ruth and Kathleen.
"Sit still!" shouted Mrs. Arnold frantically, but the mischief was done.
It all happened in two seconds. No one quite knew how, though Ruth declared afterwards that in trying to scramble past her Gladys stepped on the gunwale. Over toppled the boat, and almost before its occupants knew their danger they were struggling in the water. The girls could swim a little--a very little. Kathleen, gasping and spluttering, struggled valiantly towards the bank; Evie, with a certain instinct of self-preservation, turned on her back, and managed to keep herself afloat somehow. Ruth and Gladys clutched the upturned boat and, clung there screaming. Mrs. Arnold was in even more desperate straits. She could not swim, and she had fallen too wide of the boat to be able to grasp it. The few patrols left in charge of the camp stood for a moment paralysed, then tore along the side of the lake towards the scene of the accident. But someone else was quicker. Rona, hunting for botany specimens, had been watching the fishing from the bank close by. There was a rush, a splash, a swift little figure wildly ploughing a path through the lake, beating the water with short, impatient strokes.
"I won"t clutch you," cried Mrs. Arnold, pluckily keeping her presence of mind. "I believe I can manage to float."
She lay still as Rona put a hand under her shoulder and towed her towards the sh.o.r.e, so still that she neither stirred nor spoke when Doris and Catherine, who had reached the spot, helped to drag her from the water.
"Oh, she"s drowned!" shrieked Doris.
"No, no! Lay her down flat. She"s opening her eyes."
Marion Harper and Madge Johnson, both tolerable swimmers, were plunging to help Evie; Kathleen was already struggling ash.o.r.e. "Wait till we can come for you!" shouted Rona to Ruth and Gladys; "don"t let go the boat."
Evie was pulled ash.o.r.e first, not much the worse. Rona had trouble with Gladys, who had waxed hysterical, but with Marion"s help she landed her safely and went back for Ruth. By this time the danger-signal, blown l.u.s.tily from several League whistles, brought all who were anywhere within reach rushing to the rendezvous. Mrs. Arnold, with wet golden hair clinging round her white face, leaned against Catherine"s shoulder, while Doris rubbed her hands.
"I"m glad my husband"s gone to Capel Garmon to-day. Please let me tell him myself," were her first words. "It was good little Rona who saved me," she added, smiling faintly at Miss Bowes, who was down on her knees beside her on the gra.s.s.
"I wish I"d done it. I wish I"d done it. Oh, how I envy you, Rona!"
cried Ulyth, regarding her friend with wide shining eyes of admiration.
Miss Teddington, pale but very self-controlled, had taken command of the situation. Eight people were thoroughly wet through and bedraggled, and must be hurried to camp and dried, and given hot drinks as speedily as possible. The rescuers needed cosseting as much as the rescued. Madge and Marion were shivering and trembling, and Rona, now the excitement of her sudden dash was over, looked more shaky than she would allow.
"We must tuck them up in blankets," said Miss Teddington. "First Aid Corps on duty, please! The difficulty is going to be how to get their clothes properly dried in a place like this."
Mrs. Arnold, with Miss Bowes to look after her, went to the farm to seek fresh garments. As for the girls, there was nothing for it but to go to bed for an hour or two, while a band of servers lighted a good fire, wrung the water from the drenched articles of clothing, and held them to the blaze. Blankets were commandeered freely from other beds, and piled round the seven heroines, who, propped up with pillows, each had a kind of reception as she sipped her hot cocoa.
"We all of us forgot about the boat," said Rona suddenly. "It"s drifting upside down, and the oars are anywhere."
"Never mind. David Lewis will get it somehow, I suppose. It will drift towards the bank, and he"ll wade for it."
"Where did you learn to swim like that, Rona?"
"In the lake at home. We had one nearly as big as this close to our farm."
"The Cuckoo"s turned up trumps," murmured Alice Denham. "I didn"t know she was capable of it."
"Then it only shows how extremely stupid and un.o.bservant you are,"
snapped Ulyth.
The servers declared afterwards that drying clothes round a bonfire was the most exciting duty they had ever performed. Gusts of wind blew the flames in sudden puffs, necessitating quick s.n.a.t.c.hing away of garments in the danger zone. Shoes were the most difficult of all, and needed copious greasing to prevent their growing stiff.
"I wonder if the Ancient Britons went through this performance?" said Winnie Fowler. "Did they have to hold their skin garments round camp-fires? Thank goodness, we"ve got these things dry at last! We"re only in the nick of time. Here comes the rain."
It was a melancholy truth. The Welsh mountains have a perverse habit of attracting clouds, even in June; the sky, which had been overcast since midday, was now inky dark, and great drops began to fall. It was a calamity, but one for which everybody was fully prepared. The patrols rushed round the camp loosening ropes, lest the swelling hemp should draw the pegs from the ground, and took a last tour of inspection to see that no bed was in contact with the canvas.
"If you even touch the inside of the tent with your hand you"ll bring the water through," urged Catherine in solemn warning; "so, for your own sakes, you"d best be careful. You don"t want to spend the night in a puddle."
It was a new experience to sit inside tents while the storm howled outside. Rain up at Llyn Gwynedd was no mere summer shower, but a driving deluge. Servers in waterproofs scuttled round with cans of hot tea and baskets of bread and b.u.t.ter, and the girls had a picnic meal sitting on their beds. One tent blew over altogether, and its distressed occupants, crawling from under the flapping ruin, were received as refugees by their immediate neighbours. Fortunately the storm, though severe, was short. By seven o"clock it had expended its fury, and pa.s.sed away down the valley towards Craigwen, leaving blue sky and the promise of a sunset behind. Glad to emerge from their cramped quarters, the girls came out and compared experiences. There was plenty to be done.
The fallen tent had to be erected, and various cans and utensils which had been left outside must be collected and wiped before they had time to rust.
"This is the prose of camp-life," said Catherine, picking the gravy-strainer out of a puddle and rinsing it in the lake. "I hope we shall get the poetry to-morrow again."
"Oh, it"s lovely fun when it rains!" twittered some of the younger ones.
Mr. Arnold came down from the farm to inquire rather anxiously how the camp was faring after the storm, and particularly to have news of the girls who had been in the lake. He had left Mrs. Arnold in bed, still rather upset with the shock of the accident.
"I feel responsible for bringing you all here," he said to Miss Teddington. "I shan"t be easy in my mind now till the whole crew"s safe back at The Woodlands."
"We"ve taken no harm," Miss Teddington a.s.sured him. "The girls kept dry, and they"re as jolly as possible; indeed, I think most of them thoroughly enjoyed the rain."