CHAPTER II
A SURPRISING APPEARANCE
Helen was sobbing and crying as she ran. Tom kept a few feet behindthe girls, although what he could have done to defend them, had thebig bull overtaken him, it would be hard to say. And for severalmoments it looked very much as though Hiram Bassett's herd-leader wasgoing to reach his prey.
The thunder of his hoofs was in their ears. They did not speak againas they came to the steep bank down to the open creek. There, justbefore them, was an old hollow stump, perhaps ten feet high, with theopening on the creek side. All three of them knew it well.
As Helen went over the bank and disappeared on one side of thestump, Tom darted around the other side. Ruth, with the red cap inher hand, stumbled over a root and fell to her knees. She was rightbeside the hollow stump, and Helen's cap caught in a twig and wassnatched from her hand.
As Ruth scrambled aside and then fairly rolled over the edge of thebank out of sight, the cap was left dangling right in front of thestump. The bull charged it. That flashing bit of color was what hadattracted the brute from the start.
As the three friends dived over the bank--and their haste andheedlessness carried them pell-mell to the bottom--there sounded ayell behind them that certainly was not emitted by the bull. Goodnessknows, he roared loudly enough! But this was no voice of a bull thatso startled the two girls and Tom Cameron--it was far too shrill.
"There's somebody in that tree!" yelled Tom.
And then the forefront of the bull collided with the rotten oldstump. Taurus smashed against it with the force of a pile-driver--three-quarters of a ton of solid flesh and bone, going at the speedof a fast train, carries some weight. It seemed as though a live treecould scarcely have stood upright against that charge, let alone thisrotten stump.
Crash!
The rotten roots gave way. They were torn out of the frozen ground,the stump toppled over, and, carrying a great ball of earth with it,plunged down the bank of the creek.
Tom had clutched the girls by their hands again and the three wererunning along the narrow shore under shelter of the bank. The bull nolonger saw them. Indeed, the shock had thrown him to the ground, andwhen he scrambled up, he ran off, bellowing and tossing his head, inan entirely different direction.
But the uprooted stump went splash! into the icy waters of thecreek, and as it plunged beneath the surface--all but its roots--thetrio of frightened friends heard that eyrie cry again.
"It's from the hollow trunk! I tell you, some body's in there!"declared Tom.
But the uprooted stump had fallen into the water with the openingdown. If there really was anybody in it, the way in which the stumphad fallen served to hold such person prisoner.
Ruth Fielding was as quick as Tom to turn back to the spot where theold stump had been submerged; but Helen had fallen in her tracks, andsat there, hugging her knees and rocking her body to and fro, as shecried:
"He'll be drowned! Don't you see, he _is_ drowned? And suppose thatbull comes back?"
"That bull won't get us down here, Nell," returned her brother,laying hold of the roots of the hollow tree and trying to turn it over.
But although he and Ruth both exerted themselves to the utmost, theycould barely stir the stump. Suddenly they heard a struggle going oninside the hollow shell; as well, a thumping on the thin partition ofwood and a muffled sound of shouting.
"He's alive--the water hasn't filled the hollow," cried Ruth. "Oh,Tom! we must do something."
"And I'd like to know what?" demanded that youth, in greatperturbation.
The stump rested on the shore, but was half submerged in the waterfor most of its length. The unfortunate person imprisoned in thehollow part of the tree-trunk must be partly submerged in the water,too. Had the farther end of the stump not rested on a rock, it wouldhave plunged to the bottom of the creek and the victim of theaccident must certainly have been drowned.
"Why don't he crawl out? Why don't he crawl out?" cried Ruth,anxiously.
"How's he going to do it?" sputtered Tom.
"Can't he dive down into the water through the hole in the tree andso come up outside?" demanded the girl from the Red Mill, irritably."I never saw such a fellow!"
Whether this referred to Tom, or to the unknown, the former did notknow. But he recognized immediately the good sense in Ruth'ssuggestion. Tom leaped out upon the log and stamped upon it. Helenscreamed:
"You'll go into the creek, too, Tom!"
"No, I won't," he replied.
"Then you'll make the stump fall in entirely and the man will bedrowned."
"No, I won't do that, either," muttered Master Tom.
He stamped upon the wooden shell again. A faint halloo answered him,and the knocking on the inner side of the hollow tree was repeated.
"Come out! Come out!" shouted Tom, "Dive down through the water andget out. You'll be suffocated there."
But at first the prisoner seemed not to understand--or else wasafraid to make the attempt.
"Oh, if I only had an axe!" groaned Master Tom.
"If you cut into that tree you might do some damage," said hissister, now so much interested in the prisoner that she got up andcame near.
Ruth saw Helen's red cap high up on the bank and she scrambled upand got it, stuffing it under her coat again.
"We'll keep _that_ out of sight," she said.
"If it hadn't been for that old red thing," growled Tom, "the bullwouldn't have chased us in the first place."
But all of them were thinking mainly of the person in the hollow ofthe old stump. How could they get this person out?
And the answer to that question was not so easily found--as Tom hadobserved. They could not roll the stump over; they had no means ofcutting through to the prisoner. But, suddenly, that individualsettled the question without their help. There was a struggle underthe log, a splashing of the water, and then a figure bobbed up out ofthe shallows.
Ruth screamed and seized it before it fell back again. It was a boy--a thin, miserable-looking, dripping youth, no older than Tom, andwith wild, burning eyes looking out of his wet and pallid face. Hadit not been for Ruth and Tom he must have fallen back into the streamagain, he was so weak.
They dragged him ashore, and he fell down, shaking and chattering,on the edge of the creek. He was none too warmly dressed at the best;the water now fast congealed upon his clothing. His garments wouldsoon be as stiff as boards.
"We've got to get him to the Mill, girls," declared Tom. "Come! getup!" he cried to the stranger. "You must get warmed and have dryclothing."
"And something hot to drink," said Ruth. "Aunt Alviry will make himsomething that will take the cold out of his bones."
The strange boy stared at them, unable, it seemed, to speak a word.They dragged him upright and pushed him on between them. The bull hadrun towards the river and had not come back; so the friends, withtheir strange find, hurried on to the public road and crossed thebridge at the creek, turning off into the orchard path that led up tothe Red Mill.
"What's your name?" demanded Tom of the strange boy.
But all the latter could do was to chatter and shake his head. Theicy water had bitten into his very bones. They fairly dragged himbetween them for the last few yards, and burst into Aunt Alvirah'skitchen in a manner "fit to throw one into a conniption!" as thatgood lady declared.
"Oh, my back, and oh, my bones!" she groaned, getting up quicklyfrom her rocking chair by the window, where she had been knitting."For the good land of mercy! what is this?"
All three of the friends began to tell her together. But the littleold woman with the bent back and rheumatic limbs understood onething, if she made nothing else out of the general gabble. Thestrange boy had been in the water, and his need was urgent.
"Bring him right in here, Tommy," she commanded, hobbling into Mr.Potter's bedroom, which was the nearest to the kitchen, and therebythe warmest. "I don't know what Jabez will say, but that child's gotto git a-twixt blankets right away. It's a mercy if he ain't got h
isdeath."
They drew off the stranger's outer clothing, and then Aunt Alviryleft Tom to help him further disrobe and roll up in the blankets onMr. Potter's bed. Meantime the old woman filled a stone water-bottlewith boiling water, to put at his feet, and made a great bowl of"composition" for him to drink down as soon as it was cool enough forhim to swallow.
Ruth wrung out the boy's wet garments and hung them to dry aroundthe stove, where they began immediately to steam. As she had noticedbefore, the stranger's clothing was well worn. He had no overcoat--only a thick jacket. All his clothing was of the cheapest quality.
Suddenly Helen exclaimed: "What's that you've dropped out of hisvest, Ruthie? A wallet?"
It was an old leather note-case. There appeared to be little in itwhen Ruth picked it up, for it was very flat. Certainly there was nomoney in it. Nor did there seem to be anything in it that wouldidentify its owner. However, as Ruth carried it to the window shefound a newspaper clipping tucked into one compartment, and, as itwas damp, too, she took this out, unfolded it, and laid it carefullyon the window sill to dry. But when she looked further, she sawinside the main compartment of the wallet a name and addressstenciled, It was:
JONAS HATFIELD
SCARBORO, N. Y.
"Sec, Helen," she said to her chum. "Maybe this is his name--JonasHatfield."
"And Scarboro, New York!" gasped Helen, suddenly. "Why, Ruthie!"
"What's the matter?" returned Ruth, in surprise.
"What a coincidence!"
"What is a coincidence?" demanded Ruth, still greatly amazed by herchum's excitement.
"Why this boy--if this is his wallet and that is his name andaddress--comes from right about where we are going to-morrow.Scarboro is the nearest railroad station to Snow Camp. What do youthink of that?"
Before Ruth could reply, the sound of an automobile horn was heardoutside, and both girls ran to the door. The Cameron automobile wasjust coming down the hill from the direction of Cheslow, and in aminute it stopped before the door of the Potter farmhouse.