Adventure stories; Gold -- Juvenile fiction; South Africa -- Juvenile fiction; Young men -- Fiction
Guy Hardcastle is nothing if not prompt. His resolution is instantly
taken. He is in his light rowing kit, well prepared for swimming.
Kicking off his shoes, he dives neatly into the water, and swims rapidly
upstream towards the group of struggling people sixty yards away. Of
these, three are clinging to the boat; one man is swimming for the shore
with a child; the sixth, a girl of fourteen, has just sunk ten yards
beyond the boat down-stream. Her danger is manifestly great and
imminent. Boats are putting off from the bank, but they may be too
late. Guy Hardcastle, surveying the disaster with cool eye as he swims
that way, has concentrated all his energies on this drowning and
terror-stricken girl. He is within fifteen yards of where she sank; and
now, a few seconds later, just as the girl, now partly insensible, comes
to the surface again, he grasps her firmly, turns her over on her
back--a task of some difficulty--and, himself also swimming on his back,
tows her towards the bank. It is not an easy task. The girl is no
light weight, encumbered as she is with soddened clothing; the stream is
strong, and Guy himself is by no means so fresh as he might have been,
after that hard and exhausting race of a few minutes since. Still, with
invincible determination, the plucky lad struggles with his burden
towards the boat-house. Help comes unexpectedly. His house-master, Mr.
Brimley-Fair, has foreseen his difficulties, and, jumping into a dingy,
has rowed out to his assistance. Presently he is alongside.
"Here you are, Hardcastle," he cries; "catch hold of her side!"
Guy clutches with one hand at the boat’s gunwale, and feels that he and
his burden are now pretty safe.
"Now, hang on while I row you in," says Mr. Brimley-Fair, "and we’ll
soon have you all right."
Guy does as he is told, and in fifty strokes the boathouse is reached,
and girl and rescuer are safe. A storm of cheering, greater even than
that which greeted the winning of the boat race, now testifies to the
gallantry of the boy’s second feat and the relief of all that the girl
is safe. Meanwhile, the remainder of the overturned crew have been
rescued by boats rowed from the bank.
Arrived at the boat-house, willing hands hung on to the dingy while Mr.
Brimley-Fair stepped out of her. Then, bringing her side gently to the
platform, they grasped Guy Hardcastle and his burden and lifted them
into safety. The girl was pale and insensible, but she breathed; a
doctor was quickly in attendance; and after the usual restorative
methods had been applied for a quarter of an hour, the patient came
round, was carried to a neighbouring hotel, put to bed, and by the
evening was well enough to be taken home.
After the doctor had taken charge of the half-drowned girl, Mr.
Brimley-Fair turned his attention to Guy Hardcastle, still dripping from
his immersion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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