Part 2 (1/2)

”Scared, Anton?” said Ross. ”I'm not surprised. You've a good right to be.”

”I wasn't so scared,” the younger lad replied, with the characteristic desire of a boy not to be thought cowardly, ”I just got to wondering, that was all.”

”Wondering if any one was going to come for you?”

”Yes.”

”How did you get left behind, anyhow?” queried Ross.

”Oh, it was my own fault, all right,” the crippled lad replied. ”It was all because of the dog. You know, Ross, La.s.sie had pups, last Monday.”

”No, I didn't know about it,” responded the older boy. ”Why didn't you tell a fellow?”

”I haven't seen you since,” Anton explained. ”Well, when the levee broke and the water commenced to come into the house, Dad and Uncle Jack went and got the two boats we always keep on the river. Dad picked me up and carried me down on to the porch. I heard him call to Uncle Jack:

”'You go ahead and get Clara; I've got Anton safe with me.'”

”Then you were with him, weren't you?” queried Ross.

”Sure I was. Just as I was getting into the boat, though, I thought of La.s.sie and her puppies and I went back to get them. I called to Dad and said:

”'I'm just going to fetch La.s.sie, Dad, and I'll go in Uncle Jack's boat.'

”So, Dad, he called to Uncle, saying that I was to go with him. His boat was pretty well crowded up, too. Back I went to get La.s.sie. As soon as I'd picked up the pups, La.s.sie was willing enough to come along. The water was running over the floor and made it slippery. My crutch slithered on the wet wood and I tumbled down. It was pretty dark, and I had a job finding the four puppies again. When I did gather 'em up and started for the porch again, Uncle Jack was gone.”

”Without you?”

”He thought I was with Dad, and I suppose Dad was sure I was with Uncle Jack.”

”They ought to have found out and come back after you as soon as they got together.”

”I thought of that,” the crippled lad answered, ”and that's what I expected would happen. I suppose, though, they didn't land at the same place, and so each bunch thinks I'm with the other and isn't doing any worrying.”

”It's a mighty awkward mix-up,” declared Ross. ”There's no saying what might have happened to you if Rex hadn't been on the job.”

”Was it Rex who brought you here?”

”It sure was,” Ross replied, and he described how the terrier had pulled him by the leg and insisted on his coming over to the house in the hollow.

”Where's Rex now,” queried Anton, ”down in our old boat?”

”Yes, he's down there, keeping watch, good old scout,” answered Ross.

”He ought to be satisfied now, he certainly made fuss enough to bring me here. But, look here, Anton, how are we going to get you out? You don't swim.”

”No,” answered his chum mournfully, ”I can't swim.”

”If there was room enough down that stair,” said Ross, thoughtfully, ”I could take you on my back, but we'd never get through that door, and the window would be even worse.”

”I'd been thinking of that,” Anton answered. ”I wondered how Dad would get me when he found out that I wasn't with Uncle Jack and came for me.

So I made a long rope out of strips of my sheets.”