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The High School Boys' Canoe Club, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 22. Fred Is Grateful---One Second! |
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_ CHAPTER XXII. FRED IS GRATEFUL---ONE SECOND! For some moments Fred Ripley stood there, spellbound, regarding the still figures of Dick & Co. with fascinated fear. Most of the time he stood in darkness, but as the flashes of lightning came he again saw the six motionless figures. Even the fearful crashes of thunder failed to arouse the sleepers. "Oh, this is grewsome!" gasped Ripley at last, the coward in him coming to the surface strongly. "I can't stand this any longer!" Unconsciously he spoke aloud, his voice rising to a wail. Then as he let the folds of canvas fall, a voice inside called angrily: "Quit that! I want to get out." It was Dave Darrin's voice, and Dave was the quickest-tempered one of the six boys. Fred knew that it behooved him to get away from the spot at once. There was a wriggling under the canvas. Ripley turned to flee. Gr-r-r-r! Towser stood barring his path. "Hurry up, Darrin!" appealed Fred, as Towser moved closer, showing his teeth. "Hurry! Or this dog will chew me up." "Who's there?" called Darrin, thrusting his head out of the collapsed tent, then drawing the rest of his body after. Another flash of lightning showed Ripley's frightened face. "Oh, you, is it?" uttered Dave in a tone full of scorn. "Hurry and quiet this bull-dog!" the lawyer's son insisted. "Don't worry," retorted Darrin calmly. "Towser wouldn't sink his teeth very deep in you! He's a self-respecting dog." Now that one of the members of the canoe club was on the spot, the bull pup displayed less ferocity. He contented himself with eyeing Fred, ready to spring at a second's notice. "What has happened?" demanded Dave, looking rather bewilderedly at the tent. "Your shack was struck by lightning," Fred answered glibly, and then, ever ready to lie, he added, "I was passing by in the car, in a hurry to get back to the hotel, and I saw the thing happen. The lightning ran along the ridge-pole, then down into the tent and out at the sides along the ground. I'm afraid same of your fellows have been struck. At first I thought all of you had been killed, so I ran down here to investigate." But Dave paid little heed to the last part of this statement. He had seized hold of one side of the canvas, holding it up. "Dick!" he called lustily. "Tom, Greg, Dan, Harry!" There was no response. The thunder continued to boom louder than ever. "Hold this canvas up," Dave Darrin ordered sharply, and Ripley, knowing that Towser was eyeing him, obeyed. Inside crawled Darrin, shaking each of his friends in turn and calling to them. "I can't wake 'em! I can't get 'em to speak," reported Darrin, crawling out again, his face white with anguish. "I'm afraid they've been-----" "Yes," nodded Ripley, in a hoarse voice. "They're dead!" "How did you say you got here?" demanded Dave suddenly. "In a car?" "Yes." "Then we'll prop the canvas up to let air inside the tent, and then you'll drive me to the Hotel Pleasant as fast as you can go!" "Maybe I won't," jeered Fred. "Maybe you will," retorted Dave Darrin indignantly. His voice rang with righteous contempt. "Either you'll stand by at a time like this, or I'll fall upon you tooth and nail---with the very able help of the dog!" Gr-r-r-r! approved Towser, again showing his teeth. "I---I'll take you!" quavered Ripley. "Of course you will," nodded Darrin. "Wait till I see if the lantern is all right." He crawled into the tent, found the lantern and struck a match. Curiously enough the lantern had not been injured. Placing the lantern outside, Darrin sharply commanded his chance companion to aid in propping the canvas so that those underneath could get air. "Now, come along," ordered Darrin, when this had been done. "Towser, watch the---the gentleman!" Thus they started up the slope, when they heard a growl just ahead of them. In the same instant Towser, uttering a yelp, turned and darted away as fast as he could go. "Now, we'll see whether you'll boss me," grunted Fred Ripley, brandishing the club that he held in his left hand. "Your dog is no good any more." "Neither will you or I be any good any more if we don't keep our nerve," uttered Darrin quietly, as he turned the lantern's rays against the object in their path. "There's only one thing in the world Towser would run away from, and that's just what is ahead of us---a mad dog!" At this instant Fred, too, caught sight of the object in their path. A large dog, of doubtful breed, stood before them, its head down, but its bloodshot eyes watching them cunningly. It's dripping jaws carried conviction that the animal was rabid. Fred did not cry out or stir. He was too frightened to do either. But Dave very stealthily put down the lantern. Then, his muscles wholly steady, he snatched up an eight-foot pole that lay on the ground. "Now, come on, you beast!" challenged Darrin, making a slight thrust with the pole. Enraged at the challenge, the rabid dog sprang forward, its mouth wide open. Without faltering, Dave made a thrust that jammed the pole hard into the animal's mouth. Staggered by the blow, the dog fell back on its side. It never rose again, for now Darrin used the pole as a club, raining down blows upon the dangerous animal until he was sure that there was no life left in it. "Darrin, that was wonderful nerve of yours!" gasped Fred with admiration wrung from him in spite of himself. "And you saved my life!" "I wasn't thinking of that," said Dave grimly, as he picked up the lantern. "Don't you believe I'll ever brag about having saved your life. Now to the car, and be quick." Fred, stung by the contemptuous answer, felt his resentment raging. He darted forward so swiftly that he might have been able to leap into the car and get away with it, had not something else happened. For Towser, though he had run away from a rabid specimen of his own species, had circled about. Now he leaped into the automobile, growling, just as Fred would have sprung in. "That's right, Towser. Hold the sneak!" called Dave, arriving on a run and leaping into the car. "Now, Ripley, hang you, do some quick and honest work!" "Kick that dog out of the car first," pleaded Fred. "I won't," Darrin retorted. "The dog is my guarantee for your good behavior to-night." As soon as might be they ran around the lower end of the lake, then raced for the hotel. There Dr. Bentley was aroused. While he was dressing he sent a bell-boy to order his own big car. Just when Ripley vanished from the scene no one about the grounds or the hotel seemed to know or care. Dr. Bentley, dressed in record time, came down. "Now, we'll drive fast, Darrin," the doctor announced, as he dropped his bag into the car and seated himself at the wheel. "Struck by lightning, did you say? It was a fearful storm, but it is stopping now." Ere they reached the camp the stars were out. There was no sign of nature's dangerous mood. Dr. Bentley first of all ordered that the canvas be lifted and cast aside. The tent was badly wrecked and burned, though the rain had prevented the rising of flames that might have burned the bodies of the five unconscious boys. "Throw your coat off, Darrin, and do the work of four men for a few minutes," said Dr. Bentley tersely. "I'll do the work of a hundred," replied Dave, "if I can find the way." After some minutes of hard work Tom Reade opened his eyes. Shortly after this the puffing of one of the hotel launches was heard. For the doctor, while hurrying into his clothes, had left word with Mrs. Bentley what to do. The launch brought another and much larger tent, with cots, bedding and other things, as well as four capable workmen. Greg came to next. Neither he nor Reade, however, were good for much at the time. By the time that the new tent was up, and the cots arranged those who were still unconscious were carried in there. Then Greg and Tom were helped into the drier quarters. It was Dick who longest resisted the efforts to bring him to consciousness. At last, however, he opened his eyes. "It was a mercy that none of you were killed," uttered Dr. Bentley devoutly. "A little bit more of the current and you might have been done for." But now that he had attended to his young friends, Dr. Bentley did not think of returning to the hotel. He remained through the night, despite the fact that his charges became steadily stronger and at last went sound asleep. In the morning, before eight o'clock, the launch was over again on that side of the lake. This time it brought Mrs. Bentley, Mrs. Meade and the girls, as well as a lot of daintily prepared food fresh from the hotel kitchen. "This is a mighty pleasant world!" sighed Dick Prescott, full of luxurious content. "Yes when you have some good friends in the same world with you," Tom added. Dave and Dan slipped away to remove the body of the rabid dog killed during the night. The tent they had brought with them from Gridley would never be of service again, so Dick & Co. were highly delighted when informed that Manager Wright begged them to accept the use of this larger, finer tent, and also of the cots, during their stay at the lake. _ |
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