Part 18 (1/2)

The lake sh.o.r.e was just ahead of the fugitives. Ruth had been but a few yards out of the way in her calculations. She and Helen came out upon the beach almost at the spot where the fis.h.i.+ng punt lay.

The boat appeared to be sound, and the pole lying in it was a straight, peeled ash sapling, not too heavy for either of the girls to handle.

”Jump in, Helen!” commanded Ruth. ”Take the pole and push off. I'll push here at the bow.”

”But you'll get all wet!” quavered her chum.

”As though _that_ mattered,” returned the other, with a chuckle, as she leaned against the bow of the punt and braced her feet for the grand effort. ”Now!”

Helen had scrambled in and seized the pole. She thrust it against the sh.o.r.e, her own weight bearing down the stern, which was in the water, and thus raising the bow a trifle.

”All-to-geth-er!” gasped Ruth, as though they were at ”tug-of-war” in the Briarwood gymnasium.

The boat moved. Ruth's feet slipped and she scrambled to get a fresh brace for them.

”Now, again!” she cried.

At that moment a great hound came rus.h.i.+ng out of the wood upon their trail, raised his red eyes, saw them, and uttered a mournful bay.

”We're caught!” wailed Helen.

”We're nothing of the kind!” returned her friend. ”Push again, Helen!”

One more effort and Ruth was ankle deep in the water. The boat floated free!

But before the brave girl could scramble aboard, the hound leaped for her. Helen screamed. That shriek was enough, without the baying of the hound, to bring their enemies to the water's edge.

Ruth Fielding was terrified--of course! But she gave a final push to the boat as the hound grabbed her. Fortunately the beast seized only her skirt. Perhaps he had been taught not to actually worry his prey.

However, the girl was dragged to her knees, and she could not escape.

The punt shot out into the lake, and Ruth shouted to her chum:

”Keep on! keep on! Never mind me! Find Tom and bring help----Oh!”

The weight of the big dog had cast her into the shallow water. She immediately scrambled to her feet again. The hound held onto the skirt.

The material was too strong to easily tear, and she could not get away.

There was a cras.h.i.+ng in the brush and out upon the edge of the lake came half a dozen of the Gypsy men and one of the women. She was the one who had befooled Ruth and Helen into entering the green van the night before. When she saw Ruth's plight, standing in the water with the hound holding her, she laughed as though it were a great joke.

But the men did not laugh. He with the squinting eye strode down to the girl and would have slapped her with his hard palm, had not the woman jumped in and put herself between the man and Ruth. She seemed to threaten him in her own language, and the ruffian desisted.

One of the boys threw off his clothing--all his outer garments, at least--and plunged right into the lake after Helen. The boat had swung around, for there was considerable current in Long Lake.

”Don't let him come near you, Helen!” screamed Ruth. ”Use your pole!”

Her friend stood very bravely in the stern of the punt and raised the pole threateningly. The Gypsy boy could not easily overtake the boat, which was drifting farther and farther out toward the middle of the lake.