CHAPTER XXII
THE PRISONERS OF THE TOWER
"Fire!" cried Percy Havel. "Oh! what _shall_ we do?"
"Well, your yelling about it won't put it out," snapped Frank.
But Dave Shepard had sprung up the ladder and immediately announced thetrouble.
"The axle is getting overheated. See that can of oil yonder, Ferd? Comeout of your trance and do something useful, boy! Quick! hand me thecan."
But it was Wyn who got it to him. Dave quickly refilled the oil cups andsquirted some of the lubricant into the cracks about the shaft. Thesmoke immediately drifted away.
"The rest of you go up where it's cooler," he commanded. "I will remainhere and play engineer. And for goodness' sake, pray for the wind to diedown!"
The situation was really serious; nobody among the prisoners of thetower knew what to do.
While the wind swung the arms of the mill round and round, there was nochance to get out. Not that they did not all cudgel their brains withinthe next hour to that end. There were enough suggestions made to lead toa dozen escapes; only--none of the suggestions were practical.
It was less noisy, now that Dave had stopped the millstones; but thebuilding continued to tremble, and the great wheel to creak.
"What a donkey the man was to let them cut his door right behind thearms," exclaimed Frankie.
"And with no proper means of stopping the sails from inside, once thewind began to blow," added Percy.
"No. That's my fault," admitted Ferdinand. "I broke the gear some way."
"Well, if we only had an axe," said one of the other boys, "we might cutour way out of the building on the side opposite the door."
But Dave had already searched the mill for tools. There wasn't even arope. Had there been, they could have let themselves down from the highwindow to the ground.
"It should be against the law to build windmills without properfire-escapes," declared Frank, trying to laugh.
But it was hard to joke about the matter. It looked altogether tooserious.
The wind continued to blow steadily--a little harder, indeed, as timepassed; but the sun grew hotter. It came noon, and they knew that thoseat Green Knoll Camp had long since expected them back.
Finally a figure appeared upon the path far down the hill. Theyrecognized Tubby Blaisdell trudging painfully up the slope in the hotsun, evidently an unwilling messenger from Mrs. Havel and ProfessorSkillings.
They began to shout to Tubby, although they knew very well it wasuseless. He couldn't have heard their voices down there, even if thewindmill hadn't made so much noise.
But the girls fluttered their hats from the window and, bye and bye, thestolid fat youth, glancing up while he mopped his brow, caught sight ofthe signals. He halted, glared up at the window from under his hand, andthen hurried his steps.
"Oh, you Tubby!" shouted Frank, at last, thrusting her tousled curls outof the window. "Can't you help us?"
He heard these words, and looked more bewildered than ever.
"Say! what do you want?" he bellowed up at them. "Don't ask me to climbup those ladders, for I can't. And Mrs. Havel and the prof. say for youto come back to camp. They think a storm is coming. Besides--aren't youhungry?"
"Hungry! why, Tub," yelled down Ferd, "if we could only get at you, we'deat you alive!"
Tubby looked more than a little startled, and glanced behind him to seethat the way of retreat was clear.
"Well, why don't you come down and get your lunch, then?" demanded youngBlaisdell.
"We can't," said Wyn, and she explained their predicament.
"Can't stop those sails?" gasped Tubby. "Why--why--Where's the man whoowns the old contraption?"
They explained further. Tubby went around to the other side and caught aglimpse of Dave playing engineer. The chums shouted back and forth toeach other for some time.
Tubby wanted to see if he couldn't stop the sails by making a grab atthem.
"You do it, Tubby, and the blamed things will throw you a mile throughthe air," declared Dave. "Besides, we don't want to smash the farmer'smill. We have done enough harm as it is. So, there's no use in backingone of those heavy wagons into it and wrecking the sails. No. I guesswe've got to stand it here for a while."
They heard one of the girls calling, and Tubby lumbered around to seeFrankie gesticulating from the window.
"Oh, Tubby! don't leave us to starve--and we're so _awfully_thirsty, too," cried Wyn, pushing her friend to one side. "Get us abucket of water from the well, first of all."
"Gee! how am I going to get it up to you--throw it?" cackled the fatyouth.
"You get the bucket--and a rope," commanded Wyn.
"But if he can throw a rope up to us, we can get out of this fix,"Ferdinand cried. "Can't we, Dave?" he asked of his captain, who had comeup the ladders for a breath of fresh air.
"Tubby couldn't throw a coil of rope for a cent. He couldn't learn touse a lasso, you know."
"And we girls could not get down on a rope," objected Bess.
"We could lower you," Ferd declared.
"It would have to be a pretty strong rope," said Dave. "And maybe thereisn't anything bigger than clothes line about the farm."
Which proved to be the case. At least, Tubby could find nothing else andfinally brought the brimming bucket and the line he had found on thedrying green behind the farmhouse.
"I can't throw the thing up so high," complained Tubby, after two orthree attempts.
"Wait!" commanded Wyn.
"Hold on! Wynnie's great mind is at work."
"Everybody sit down and unlace his or her shoes. I want the lacings,"declared Wynifred.
"Hurray!" exclaimed Ferd. "Wait a bit, Tubby; don't wear your poorlittle self to a grease spot trying to throw that rope over the mill."
Tubby, nothing loath, sat down and breathed heavily. The day _was_hot in spite of the high wind.
Wyn got all the shoe strings and tied them together, with a boltfastened to the lower end for a sinker, and let it down to the ground.There Tubby attached the end of the clothes line and they pulled it up.It was long enough, and strong enough, and Dave carefully raised thebucket of water--and oh! how good it tasted to the thirsty prisoners.
They were all provided with cups, for the Academy teachers and theDenton mothers were rather insistent on that point.
"But, oh, golly!" burst forth Frank, "if they'd only made us alwayscarry an emergency ration."
"We didn't expect to be cast away on a desert island in this fashion,"said Dave.
But Wyn had another idea.
"There are melons on the back porch. I saw them there this morning. Goget us a lot, Tubby. Send 'em up by the bucket-full. And there aretomatoes in the garden, and some summer apples on that tree by the fencecorner. We'll make it all right with Mrs. Prosser. Why, say! we sha'n'tstarve."
"I'll get you some eggs if you want 'em," suggested the willing youth."I hear the hens cackling."
But all objected to raw eggs and thought the melons and fresh tomatoeswould suffice.
"You go back to camp and report," ordered Dave, through the window. "Theprof, and Mrs. Havel will be having conniption fits if these girls don'tshow up pretty soon. Tell 'em we're all right--but goodness knows wewant the wind to stop blowing."
It did not seem, however, as though the wind had any such intention.After Tubby Blaisdell departed it blew even stronger.
It was hard to keep the whole party in good temper. The imprisonment wasgetting on their nerves. Besides, the sky was growing darker, althoughit was not yet mid-afternoon; and not long after the fat youth was outof sight, heavy drops of rain began to fall.
Rather, the wind whipped the raindrops in at the tower window. Patter,patter, patter, they fell, faster and faster, and in the distancethunder rumbled.
The picnicking farmers should be home ahead of this storm; yet, if theycame, they could not stop the sails of the windmill. The shaft groanedand smoked, but Dave kept the oil cups filled.
Nearer and
nearer came the thunder, and the lightning began to flash.Some of the girls were frightened. Nor was this a pleasant place inwhich to be imprisoned during an electrical storm. The tall, revolvingarms seemed just the things to attract the lightning.
They all were glad--boys as well as girls--to retire to the ground floorof the mill while the elements shrieked overhead and the rain poundedupon the roof and the sails. It was really a most unpleasant situation.