CHAPTER VIII A LIVELY AFTERNOON
There followed an eternity of suspense for those watching for thereappearance of Dorothy. The missing of the hold she expected to get onthe board and the effort to keep Miss Higley up, together with thestruggle she had gone through, caused the girl to lose all control ofherself. She had sunk instantly without having any opportunity of usingher free arm to keep herself above water.
Seeing this Rose-Mary and Molly, who had climbed out on the base of thechute, jumped into the lake again, making for the spot where they sawDorothy go down the second time.
But before they could reach it they saw Dorothy's head above the surface.She had come up under the chute, in an open square of water, formed bythe four supporting posts of the affair. Cautiously she reached out andcaught hold of a beam. Then another arm was seen to grasp a projectingplank! Miss Higley was struggling!
She was not dead! Not unconscious!
"Dorothy!" screamed Tavia from shore, as she saw the form of her chumcome to the surface the second time. But Tavia did not see Dorothy wave areassuring hand at her as she climbed up on the chute, and helped MissHigley support herself across one of the base planks. For Tavia hadfallen unconscious beside Edna, who was only just beginning to show signsof life under the prompt administrations of Rose-Mary and Dick.
In all this confusion the white-aproned matron forgot to use hertelephone. But, as she now assisted the other girls in working over Edna,she directed some of the swimmers, who had come to shore, to look afterTavia.
Lena Berg, the quietest girl of Glenwood, rushed into the bathing officeand telephoned to Central to "send doctors." Almost before those workingover Edna and Tavia had realized it, and, almost as soon as the throng ofyoung ladies had started to assist Miss Higley and Dorothy to shore, anautomobile with two doctors in it stopped at the gate. The physicianswere soon working over Tavia and Edna.
A few seconds later Rose-Mary and Molly pulled up to shore in an old boatthey had found anchored near the chute, and in the craft, which theyrowed with a broken canoe paddle, were Dorothy and Miss Higley!
As so often happens that one small accident is responsible for any numberof mishaps, especially where girls or women become panic-stricken, itseemed now that the rescue of Miss Higley and Dorothy acted like magic torestore all four victims of the water to their senses, at least, if notto actual vigor. Tavia and Edna both jumped up as the boat grounded onthe beach, and Miss Higley and Dorothy staggered ashore.
"Be careful," cautioned one of the physicians, as the teacher was seen tototter, and almost fall. She was plainly very weak, and, while theyounger doctor looked after Dorothy the other, who was his father, tookMiss Higley into the bathing pavilion office to administer to her there.
Tavia had only fainted. Indeed she had been scarcely able to swim out tohelp Edna, not being entirely recovered from her recent nervous fever.Edna had swallowed considerable water, but it was fresh, and when she hadbeen relieved of it, and the usual restoratives applied, she, too, washerself again.
Dorothy insisted there was absolutely nothing the matter with her, but itwas plain that such physical efforts as she had been obliged to make inher rescue of Miss Higley, must at least exhaust a girl of her frailphysique. So young Dr. Morton insisted on her being assisted in a"thorough rub." Then she was given a warm, stimulating drink, and, soonafter that, Dorothy was able to tell what had happened.
An hour later all the brown bathing suits had been discarded, Tavia andDorothy had been supplied with dry clothing, and all the Glenwood girlswho had come to Sunset Lake sat on the rocky shore back of the sand,waiting for the hour to arrive when they must start back to the school.There was no lack of talk to make the time pass quickly.
Miss Higley seemed the least perturbed of any--she had a way of alwaysbeing beyond a mere personal feeling. She never "allowed herself" toencourage pains or aches; in fact she was one of those strong-mindedwomen who believe that all the troubles of this life are hatched in thehuman brain, and, therefore the proper cure for all ills is theeradication of the germ producer--sick-thoughts. So, as soon as she felther lungs in working order again she "took the defensive" as Taviaexpressed it, and sat up as "straight as a whip," with her glasses atexactly the proper pitch and the black cord at precisely the accustomeddangle.
"Mar-vel-ous!" gasped Dick, aside, giving the long word an inimitableroll, and, at the same time, bestowing a wondering look on the recentlyresuscitated teacher.
"But do tell us," begged Rose-Mary, "what happened first--of all thoseexciting things?"
"I did," answered Edna Black. "I was shooting the chute to my heart'scontent, when, all of a sudden, I stuck somewhere. Then, after tryingeverything I knew how to do to get loose, I said my prayers."
"Next," called Rose-Mary, indicating Tavia.
"Well, of course," began Tavia, "Dorothy and I were not to go near thewater, but when we saw Edna turn up missing we just kicked off ourslippers and, in the language of the poets, 'got busy.' I found Ned here,first shot, stuck in between the two corner boards of the chute posts.She didn't need any coaxing to come up, once I untangled her skirt from anail which held it fast, and I brought her up without any unnecessaryexplanations."
"And, in the meantime Miss Higley had gone down," interjected Dorothy."That is she went down after Edna first."
"And came up last," added the teacher, with a significant nod to Dorothy.
"How did you find Miss Higley, Parson?" Rose-Mary continued to question,with a view to getting the entire story.
"I found her in a mud hole, held fast, but able to help herself somewhat.Then I--I got her up--somehow--."
"Indeed I was almost unconscious until you dragged my head up to theair," Miss Higley hastened to say, anxious to give Dorothy her due, forcertainly the rescue was a matter of heroic effort, and Miss Higley,being heavy, and, at the same time, unable to help herself, gave Dorothythe most difficult of all the surprising tasks of that eventfulafternoon.
"But when she sank that time--like a stone," suggested Dick to Dorothy.
"Oh, I merely missed catching hold of a plank and I had to go down--Icouldn't keep up."
"Certainly; why not?" put in Nita Brandt, glad to be able to saysomething "safe."
"And you, Lispy," said Lena to Nita. "You and Adele started the epidemicwith your water wings. Next time make it life preservers."
The girlish spirits, "bottled up" during the period of worry came outwith a resounding "pop" now, and the walk home proved even pleasanterthan the one to the beach.
"For now," declared Ned, between her jokes, "we are like the man wholaughed at the ugly cow from inside the fence--he found it much funnierto laugh at the cow from outside the fence."