The Meadow Brook Girls Across Country Part 15

"I can't," moaned Margery. She began to choke and cough. "I've swallowed a bug."

"Oh, the poor bug. I'm tho thorry for him," piped Tommy.

"Maybe we can catch him in one of those bottles," suggested Miss Elting.

"Come, girls, you aren't going to desert me now, are you? Already!

'Forty-nine blue bottles were hanging on the wall.'"

Once more the girls went over the familiar refrain, ending finally with the Meadow-Brook yell. Again and again did they take the bottles from the wall, but as often as they removed them invisible hands replaced every one of the forty-nine blue bottles in their accustomed position on the wall.

For the tenth time the forty-nine blue bottles had been taken down and hung up again. The voices of the girls were so hoa.r.s.e that they could barely speak aloud, though they were laughing hysterically as they labored with the forty-ninth. They had almost forgotten that they were in danger, forgotten their aching bodies, forgotten that Harriet Burrell was speeding through the darkness in quest of a.s.sistance, when a distant but familiar cry reached their ears. It was the long drawn out "hoo-e-e-e-e" of the Meadow-Brook Girls.

Miss Elting heard it first. Her companions were laughing so immoderately that they failed to hear it the first time. The guardian's voice failed her. A lump rose in her throat. The strain had been so great that several times she found herself on the point of giving way. Now the reaction had set in.

"Hoo-e-e-e-e!"

Tommy heard it, and uttered a scream. The call was repeated. This time all the girls heard it plainly.

"It's Harriet, it's Harriet!" cried Hazel.

"Yes. Rescue is at hand," replied Miss Elting fervently.

A light twinkled far away through between the trees. It seemed to the anxious eyes of the guardian as though it were miles and miles distant.

She raised her voice in a shout, but the voice was so weak that it carried but a short distance.

"Shout, girls!" she begged. "You may be able to make them hear. I can't.

My voice has completely left me. Tommy! You can always scream. Do so now."

Tommy let loose a thrilling, penetrating yell. The rescue party heard it. They answered with return shouts in male voices.

"That sounds to me like boys' voices," cried Miss Elting huskily.

"Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy. "My hair ith all tumbled down, my frock ith muddy from top to bottom and my fathe ith thmudged. I'm a thight, I know I am. I can't retheive company to-day. Thend them away, pleathe."

Some one came running toward them considerably in advance of the light.

"Girls! Girls!" shouted an anxious voice.

"Here!" cried the guardian.

"Thank goodness you're alive," answered Harriet Burrell. "I've been terribly anxious about you. Here-here's a can of fresh water. I know your throats must be dry."

Reaching forward, Harriet handed the can to the guardian. Miss Elting pa.s.sed it on to Tommy. Each of the girls drank.

"Where are you, folks?" shouted a boyish voice.

"Here. Just ahead of you," answered Harriet. She had sunk down on the trail, her strength gone. A moment later she was on her feet again, hurrying down the trail to guide the rescuers to the spot.

A tall young fellow clad in khaki, a campaign hat on his head, rushed up. Behind him came half a dozen other young men similarly clad. They were bearing fence rails on their shoulders, fairly staggering under the weight of their burdens.

"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Miss Elting, now on the verge of tears after the strain. "Who are they, Harriet, my brave girl?"

"We're the Tramp Club," answered the first boy. "We'll introduce ourselves after we get you girls out of the mora.s.s. You're in a fine mess and you certainly do need help."

CHAPTER X-IN THE HANDS OF THE RESCUERS

"Now, keep perfectly quiet. Don't move an inch. We'll have you out of it in a few moments. Here, Dill, give me the rope. Now the end of a rail.

The young lady over there with the flaxen hair--"

"It ithn't flaxen. It ith blonde," protested Tommy indignantly.

"I stand corrected," laughed the young man. "Please grab the rope and pull on it. I don't dare throw a rail out there for fear of hitting one of you. Being the farthest out, you will be able to pull the rail right up to you. Never mind if you do settle down an inch or two. I'll have you out at any rate. Do you understand?"

"Yeth."

"Then here goes." The boy tossed a coil of rope so accurately that the coil dropped directly over Grace Thompson's head. She uttered a little scream as the rope slipped over her head, then clawed frantically at it.

"That's right," cried her rescuer. "Now pull."

Tommy pulled desperately drawing the rail towards her, but sinking deeper and deeper into the mud until she was nearly up to her armpits.

The little lisping girl took fresh alarm. She began to cry, "Thave me!"

"Don't be frightened. Here's another rail!" encouraged the youth. "We've got to build up a bridge. Those limbs and saplings you have out there will make an excellent foundation. Hurry them up here, Dill! The young ladies will grow impatient and refuse to wait for us longer."

The girls declined to laugh at this pleasantry. They were in too much distress. Harriet stood holding a lantern above her head so that the boys might see to work to the best advantage. The rails were drawn out by Tommy in each instance, a.s.sisted by the girls between herself and the path. Then the leader set his boys at work felling the largest trees they could find along the trail. The lads went at their work with a will. As soon as the trees and brush were cut down they were carried over and dumped in on the rail and brush foundation, forming a rude bridge. The leader then advanced cautiously over it until he reached a point near to the guardian and the girls.

"Now we will see what we can do."

A rope was pa.s.sed about the waist of the guardian despite her protests that the others should be gotten out of the mora.s.s first. Three boys were put at the sh.o.r.e end of the rope with orders to pull when their leader gave the word. He, on his part, took firm hold of Miss Elting under the arms, then shouted "now!"

Those on sh.o.r.e began to pull. The leader, at the same time, began to lift with all his might, moving the guardian's shoulders from left to right.

"Tell me if the rope hurts you," gasped the muscular young fellow.

Miss Elting came up so suddenly that her rescuer fell over, narrowly escaping a plunge into the mora.s.s. The guardian was finally dragged to the path. The rescuers then turned their attention to the other girls.

Their wooden raft was slowly sinking under the weight that had been put upon it, but fresh stuff was being constantly piled on it to keep it above the mud. One by one the Meadow-Brook Girls were hauled out.

Harriet had helped Miss Elting aside into the shadows, where she a.s.sisted the guardian in sc.r.a.ping the mud from her clothing. At first Miss Elting was barely able to stand. She found herself trembling from head to foot now that the strain, mental and physical, was removed.

"Here's another one!" cried the cheery voice of the leader

"What wonderful boys!" breathed Miss Elting, starting to go to Tommy's a.s.sistance.

"Please lie down on the ground and rest, Miss Elting. Don't try to get up until we are ready to start. I can take care of the others as they are dragged out," directed Harriet.

She a.s.sisted Tommy to a place beside Miss Elting, the latter insisting upon trying to help the unfortunate and humiliated Tommy in her distressing condition.