Part 3 (2/2)

Oh, I know!” he exclaimed in a few moments. ”Good idea! a jolly dodge!”

”Can you get my bow and arrows, Edie?” he shouted, ”and my kite string?”

”What for?”

”To shoot the string to us,” he replied. ”Unwind it, and tie one end to the arrow just above the feathers, and see if you can't shoot it to us.”

”Don't hit us!” screamed Mansy.

Then the girls with the candle-light disappeared from the window, and the boy and the old nurse were left in the tub to await events.

”What a long time the girls are!” he exclaimed presently. ”I expect they cannot find the things.” The girls were not really so long as appeared to the wearied watchers in the moonlight; but at length Edie and her sister, with Jane, the servant-maid, showed themselves again at the window.

”Ah! they've got the bow and arrows,” said Mansy.

”Look out,” cried Madge, ”I don't want to hurt you.” And Alfy and Mansy covered their faces and screwed themselves down in the tub as well as they could, the irrepressible Alfy laughing meanwhile, and saying he did not think they need take such great precautions. Mansy, however, was rather fidgety about it.

”If the arrow did get into your eyes, you know, Master Alfy, I should never forgive myself!” she said.

”But I should like to peep and see how Madge does it, you know,” argued Alfy.

”Now, I'm going to shoot,” screamed Madge. She shot; and the arrow fell midway between the house and the boat.

”Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the boy outright ”To think of making all that fuss for nothing.” Then he cried aloud, ”Pull the arrow back quick, Madge, and raise the bow higher when you shoot again; draw the bowstring back as far as you can.”

”And tie some more string to the kite line if it is not long enough,”

cried Mansy.

So with much laughter from the girls they pulled the arrow back from the water by the string attached to it and tried again. They were not expert archers, and failed once more--failed indeed several times. But at last the arrow fell quite near the tub, and Alfy called out to his sisters not to draw it back as it floated closer, and then with the help of the handle of Mansy's bulgy umbrella he pulled it in and of course the kite string with it.

This string was of great length. Alfy was fond of kite flying, and by adding together long pieces of string he had acquired a tether of considerable extent. To lengthen it still more, however, the girls had managed to find some more string, and so it came about that communication was established between the inhabitants of the house and the watchers in the tub.

”That thin string will never pull us along,” said Mansy doubtfully.

”It'll break!”

”Not if we help, I hope,” exclaimed Alfy cheerfully. ”We must paddle our hardest, so the strain on the line won't be so great.”

”Don't pull yet,” he cried; ”not till I tell you, Edie.” Then he cut the tub free from the laburnum, and, pus.h.i.+ng the umbrella hard against the trunk of the tree, gave the tub a vigorous push in the direction of the house; and while it was floating thither, he called out to the girls to pull the string lightly, and commenced to paddle at the same time. Mansy also endeavoured to help with her inseparable umbrella, and so now all of them were endeavouring to persuade the heavily laden and clumsy craft to float against the flood to the house.

It was a tiresome task. The young navigator was obliged to go very slowly, and to constantly ask his sisters not to pull hard, lest the string should break. The vigorous push-off had given them a good start, and they made a little progress.

Once the string broke, but Alfy was able to fish up the line, for it was near, and Mansy knotted the broken ends together again. He now began to be more expert with his improvised paddles, and the string just kept tight, but with scarcely any strain upon it, yet prevented the tub from ”wobbling”--steered it in fact to the house, and helped to counteract the flow of the water.

So gradually they progressed to the house. The moon was now declining, and a dark hour before the early dawn was at hand.

”How I'm going to get inside that house I don't know!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mansy at last, after surveying the front for some little time. ”I can't get through the door--that would let the water in,--and climb to the upper part of that winder, I couldn't!”

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