Part 5 (1/2)
Tommy, who had raised her head from the water a short distance from where the guardian was paddling, uttered a scream.
”There thhe ith!” she cried; ”there she ith! Right down there. Come in a hurry. She ith under the car. I could thee her plainly. Oh, I'm tho thcared!” Tommy began paddling for the sh.o.r.e with all speed.
Miss Elting did not answer. Instead, she took a long dive. About this time Jane came up. Hazel, who was making for the spot where the guardian had disappeared, pointed to it. Jane understood. It took her but a few seconds to reach the center of the rippling circle left by the guardian; then Crazy Jane's feet kicked the air a couple of times.
She had taken an almost perpendicular dive. But it seemed that she had not been under water more than a second or two when she lunged to the surface. A few feet from her Miss Elting appeared, threw herself over on her back and lay gasping for breath.
”She'th got her!” screamed Tommy. ”Harriet ith dead!”
Gazing out over the pond she saw Jane swimming swiftly toward sh.o.r.e, dragging the apparently lifeless body of Harriet Burrell. Miss Elting and Hazel were closing up on Jane rapidly. Reaching her side a moment later, the guardian took one of Harriet's arms and a.s.sisted in towing her in.
Tommy remembered afterward having been fascinated by the expressions in their faces. She stared and stared. The faces of the two women were white and haggard. Still farther back she saw only Hazel's eyes. They were so large that Tommy was scarcely able to credit their belonging to Hazel. Had Tommy known it, her own face was more pale and haggard at that moment than those of her companions.
Jane dragged Harriet ash.o.r.e; then Miss Elting grasped the unconscious girl almost roughly, flung her over on her stomach and began applying ”first aid to the drowned.”
”Ith--ith she dead?” gasped Tommy.
”She's drowned, darlin',” answered Crazy Jane McCarthy abruptly.
CHAPTER IV
A QUESTION OF POLITICS
”Lay her over on her back!”
Jane obeyed Miss Elting's command promptly. The guardian, using her wet handkerchief, cleared Harriet's mouth by keeping the tongue down to admit the air.
”Work her arms back and forth. We must set up artificial respiration,”
she directed.
Jane, without any apparent excitement, began a steady movement of the patient's arms, bringing them together above the head, then down to the sides. She continued this as steadily as if she were not face to face with a great tragedy. She did not yet know whether or not it were a tragedy; but, if appearances went for anything, it was. In the meantime the guardian had glanced over her shoulder at the pond. She saw the trunk slowly drifting in.
”Get it and open it, Hazel,” she commanded.
”I haven't a key.”
”Break it open with a stone. Never mind a key.”
Hazel ran out into the water until she was up to her neck, then she swam out. Reaching the floating trunk, she got behind it and began pus.h.i.+ng it sh.o.r.eward. Margery and Tommy stood watching the proceedings in speechless horror. Hazel got the trunk ash.o.r.e, when, following the guardian's directions, she broke the lock open with a stone.
”It's open,” she cried.
”Are the things inside very wet?”
”No; they are just as dry as they can be.”
”Good. Are Harriet's clothes there?”
”I think so. Shall I take them out?”