TOUCH AND GO

The Black Eagle Patrol stared blankly at Nap.

"No train!" S. S. repeated dully.

"Not a sign of one." Nap had an irritating air of being pleased to act as bearer of bad news. "And the only possible automobile road on this side of the hills makes it a six-hour trip. That's why the Seftons started at seven this morning."

"I suppose," suggested Jump, somewhat nettled, "I suppose you are going to say you're Waterlooed."

Nap shook his head with a superior smile.

"If you remember—I mean, if you've ever read about that campaign of Napoleon's when he crossed the Alps—"

"No, I don't remember it and I never read about it," Bi said bluntly, "and I don't expect to read about it, either, unless some teacher makes me; but if you have an idea up your sleeve, shake it out."

"What's the plan, Nap?" Bunny queried patiently.

"Just this." Nap hid his disappointment at being cut short. "The R. A. & S. railroad runs through Harrison City, and the station is only about a mile from the other side of the lake. I have telephoned all over, and here's what I found out: There's a train over there, leaving Harrison City at 10:50. Of course, the R. A. & S. doesn't run to Belden, but you can get to Deerfield on it, where there is a bus line to Belden, sort of doubling back a ways, you see. If we make that 10:50 train, we'll be at the ball park by two o'clock."

Bunny nodded. "Good work, Nap; that fixes us. Now, if Roundy can borrow the launch—"

Roundy was sure he could.

"—we'll scoot across the lake, leave the boat at the yacht club there, hike the mile to the Harrison City station, and catch the train. Come on; we haven't any time to spare."

It took only a few seconds to make sure that their services at the deceased fire were no longer needed, and that Royal Sheffield's automobile would be safely stowed in the garage on Main Street. Once assured on these points, the patrol struck out, at an alternate walk and trot they often practiced, by the shortest of short cuts to the boathouse.

It was astonishing how well things went, so far as getting started was concerned. The boathouse key was hanging conveniently in its place; the launch's gasoline tank was filled to the brim; the engine started off as promptly as if it were accustomed to acting that way, instead of having what Roundy aptly called "cranky fits."

"We'll make it in a walk," announced Nap, consulting his watch. "It's just 9:57 now. We'll cover those four miles of lake in thirty minutes. That's 10:27. Maybe we'll waste five minutes landing and getting the boat taken care of; that will bring it to 10:32. And if we can't cover the mile to Harrison City and get on the train in eighteen minutes more, we ought to turn in our Scout badges."

The others nodded agreement.

"Somebody camping on Shadow Island," broke in Bonfire from his post of lookout in the bow of the boat.

"I don't see any smoke," Bi commented. "I don't see any tents, either. There's somebody standing on the shore, but there's a boat there, too. Chances are it's just a fisherman."

Bonfire pointed to a little gap in a maple grove.

"Do you see that line of washing to the left, hung between those two trees? Did you ever hear of any fisherman who went over to Shadow Island to do his washing?"

"I'm licked," Bi admitted. "Who is it? Are you enough of a Sherlock Holmes to tell us from here?"

"I know who it is." S. S. joined the conversation. "It's two families from Harrison City, cousins of Marion Genevieve Chester. She told me so, and she's over there visiting them to-day."

Specs snorted. "I guess it won't break her heart if we pass right by without calling on her. She has about as much to do with us as she has with a bunch of rattlesnakes, and that's not a whole lot."

"She thinks we still dislike her for being president of the student association," Bunny observed mildly. "And she hasn't forgotten how Bi allowed her to get scared at Molly's picnic. She just thinks we haven't any use for her and wouldn't lift a finger to get her out of any trouble."

"Marion Genevieve Chester! Wow, what a name!" mocked Specs.

The laughter that followed was a little uncertain. Seating arrangements at school had made the girl, Bunny and S. S. all next door neighbors. To the surprise of these two Scouts, at least, they had found her snobbishness mainly the outcome of a solitary childhood, a thin veneer that was slowly but surely wearing off. Though her fancied superiority to the other pupils had not yet vanished, the give and take of school life was gradually rubbing it away.

Smoothly, purringly, the launch clove its way toward the yacht club on the far side of the lake, while Shadow Island, the scene of Bunny's initiation into the Black Eagle Patrol,[2] dropped astern.

"On the home stretch and running like a watch," Roundy declared. "We'll have time to get there and play an inning of baseball before the train starts. We can—"

"Shipwreck ahead!"

It was Bonfire's cry that brought the passengers of the boat to a sudden alertness.

"Tipped just now! Two of them in it! One of them stood up! There they are!"

The little craft ahead was keel up, with two heads bobbing alongside and two arms hugging tightly the side. Faintly, the light breeze brought cries of distress.

"One of them's a girl!"

"They're both girls!"

"What are they hollering for? They're all right if they just hang on. They can see us coming."

"You mean they're all right if they don't get panicky."

"Turn the engine loose, Roundy."

Roundy wiped a perspiring forehead. "The engine's doing all it can right now."

Bunny gave rapid-fire directions. "Roundy, if there's any rescuing to do, you're the prize swimmer; so you'll do it. S. S., you handle the engine and the steering gear. Everybody else, stand ready to help. Bring our starboard up as close to the boat as you can and hold it there."

Shoes and stockings kicked off, Roundy leaned over the side. "If they are all right, we can just pull them in; but if they are too scared, I'll jump in after them." He broke off to chuckle.

"What is it?"

"I'll eat my hat if the girl on the right isn't Marion Genevieve Chester!"

There was an eager second of straining.

"It's Marion Genevieve, all right, and she's so scared she doesn't know her stylish name."

"Bring us up close, S. S. Graze it if you can."

No doubt remained that one of the two girls clinging to the upturned boat was Marion Genevieve Chester. But while her companion saved strength by holding quietly and allowing the water to support as much of her weight as possible, Marion Genevieve not only exhausted herself by screaming, but in addition wasted her muscle reserve by striving vainly to pull herself higher out of the water.

The launch was now within twenty feet. It slowed down.

"Better be ready to go overboard, Roundy. Always the chance of an accident, you know."

Bunny had hardly given the warning when, with a last frantic cry, the girl threw up two wild arms and splashed back into the water.

"Go over, Roundy!"

Before her head could sink beneath the surface, the Scouts realized that something had happened to Roundy Magoon. Kicking wildly with his left leg, he had drawn back from the rail to the cockpit.

"Roundy!"

Marion Genevieve's pale face, washed over by a tiny ripple, slipped beneath the water.

Snarling as though a wild beast had attacked him, Roundy snatched at the coil of rope that Nap had accidentally kicked into his path. With his fingers, he tore at the hemp line that had snarled about his ankle.

The girl was above water again, coughing and spluttering and groping for some tangible support.

"Roundy!"

And then, quite without command or plan, the balance of the Black Eagle Patrol, plus little Prissler, took his place.

Bunny was over first, with Bi, Jump and Specs close seconds. Nap followed, hard pressed by Bonfire. Then S. S. and Prissler, and, last of all, the freed Roundy.

Swiftly, surely, they cut their way to the helpless girl, with Bunny in the lead. Catching her dress near the back of her neck, he held her face clear of the water till, by clasping both hands under her chin, he was able to swim slowly on his back and tow her to safety.

Jump and Nap swam alongside; Bonfire was lending a hand to the other shipwrecked miss; Prissler, who was obviously not as much at home in the water as the others, wisely put back for the launch; while S. S., ploughing through the water like a fish, was already clambering aboard, ready to start the engine. Bi, Roundy and Specs joined forces in towing the upturned craft toward the power boat.

The rest was comparatively simple. The Scouts made no work at all of climbing back into the launch; and, with feet well braced, Bi and Specs easily lifted the two girls over the side. Marion Genevieve sank down on the leather cushions, weak and faint, though frightened rather than harmed. The other girl, who introduced herself as Marion Genevieve's cousin, was able to laugh good-naturedly.

"We stood up in the boat," she said, "because we wanted to change seats. And—well, that's all!"

"It may be all as far as you are concerned," thought more than one Scout, "but we're going somewhere in a hurry, and now we'll have to take you back to Shadow Island and tow that capsized boat, to boot."

But nobody was impolite enough to say this aloud.

Whatever Bunny wished to do, it was plain that he had no choice in the matter. Though Marion Genevieve was not dangerously ill or faint, she kept up a moaning for her mother that could not be disregarded. Roundy, still a little disgruntled over his mishap, turned to the patrol leader, who nodded toward Shadow Island. With a line fast to the swamped boat, the launch engine started and they began to move slowly toward the shore line. It seemed to every boy that hours were being wasted, but nobody complained.

Not till she was once more on dry land did Marion Genevieve seem to come fully to herself. Then, while her relatives were still trying to thank the patrol, she suddenly remarked, "Why—why all of you are wet!"

"Couldn't help it," said the cheerful Specs. "We all dove off the boat and forgot to take our umbrellas."

There were several emotions trying to express themselves on Marion Genevieve's face, but all she managed to say was, "I—I thank you—all of you! I'm very, very grateful."

"Oh, that's all right, Marion Genevieve," Specs laughed.

The girl's glance wavered. She picked at her wet dress. "I—Please!" she said imploringly. And then it came out, as if it wrenched her very soul. "My name isn't Marion Genevieve," she told them. "It's Mary; my middle name is Jennie. I was called after two aunts of mine."

She was staring straight at Bunny now. He felt his cheeks redden. It was a hard position in which to put a fellow, he told himself, and probably he'd say the wrong thing. But when he spoke, it was honestly and naturally.

"I think Mary is a nice name," he said.

The girl's low "Thank you!" meant a good deal more to the Scouts than they were able to understand just then. Afterward, Specs tried to put it into words.

"She said it," he told the others, "as if she was sorry she had been so—so snippish to us, and as if she wanted us to forget and make up and—and everything. I'll bet you Mary's going to be a regular girl after this. I like her about twice as much as I ever did before."

But this was afterward. At the moment, the Scouts merely nodded in an embarrassed manner and set about the task of shoving the launch into deep water, despite an almost irresistible appeal from the campers to wait for a treat of strawberries and cake and lemonade.

"Well," remarked Roundy, when Shadow Island once more lay astern, "I'm glad we were there when we were needed. Just the same, I'm afraid we've lost out. I'll talk to the engine, but we can't go any faster than just so fast."

"There's time yet," Bunny insisted; "there must be time yet."

Far and faint across the two-mile stretch of water came the sound of a bell. It pealed from the tower of Harrison City's big church: four chimes—half-past ten.

Two miles of water and a mile of land to cover in twenty minutes! The Scouts looked despairingly at the steadily throbbing engine.

"It can't be done!" muttered Roundy. "It can't be done!"