The moaning sound was growing louder and more distinct, changing
gradually but swiftly to a suppressed, smothered roar. The black sky
seemed to close over Lovers’ Leap and blot it out. The rain was coming,
a few drops of the advance guard pattering around the canoe, in which
the two paddle-wielders continued to exercise the full strength of their
arms.
They had been seen by Crane and Stone, both of whom were now standing
well out upon the point, watching them with no small anxiety.
Like the trio returning from Spirit Island, the person in the
sail-driven boat seemed to be making for Pleasant Point, and they were
now so near that they recognized him as he, looking round, appeared to
discover them for the first time.
“Well, I’ll be dud-dished!” exclaimed Springer. “It’s our friend, James
Simpson, Esquire. Seems to me he’s planning to make a cuc-call at our
camp.”
“A right good time for him to come around if he intends to provoke
further trouble,” muttered Rodney. “I’d advise him to lower that sail
and use his oars. I opine there’s going to be something doing in the
hurricane line directly.”
“You bet,” agreed Piper, as the roaring sound increased with surprising
rapidity. “Here she comes now.”
“Hold the canoe steady, Phil,” admonished the Texan.
With a shriek the wind swept over them, tearing the surrounding water
into foam. In a twinkling, almost, it struck the sail of Simpson’s boat,
and in another twinkling the tiny craft upset, pitching its occupant
into the lake.
“I knew it, the chump!” cried Grant above the screaming of the wind.
“He’s got his ducking ahead of the rainstorm.”
“Wonder if he can sus-swim?” shouted Phil apprehensively. “Don’t want to
see the pup-poor feller drowned.”
“He sure ought to know how to swim, living near this lake,” returned
Rodney. “Where is he, anyhow?”
“There! there!” cried Sleuth, pointing, as a head appeared some distance
from the capsized boat. “Look at the idiot! See him throw up his hands!
Stone and Crane are shouting to us. Great marvels! He _can’t_ swim!”
Already, with a sweep of his paddle, Grant had pointed the canoe toward
the overturned boat and the youth who, splashing wildly only a short
distance from it, seemed quite unable to reach and grasp it for support.
“Pull, Springer—pull for all you’re worth!” he commanded.
The driving blast of wind aided in speeding them toward the imperiled
fellow.
“If he gets hold of this canoe he’ll upset it!” palpitated Piper.
Simpson’s head disappeared from view and was not seen again for several
moments, after which his frantic efforts shot his body above the surface
halfway to the waist line. Gulping, gasping, terrified by the experience
through which he was passing, the fellow turned his blanched face and
appealing eyes toward the three boys who were now bearing down upon him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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