Part 36 (2/2)
The cries continued almost incessantly, and by them Jack was guided to a clump of large trees standing near one end of the pond within a few yards of the spot where Louis had been set adrift on the raft.
It was not necessary to search long for the sufferer.
Lying on the ground, held firmly down by a huge limb of a tree which had fallen across his breast in such a manner that he could not use his arms, was Bill Dean.
His face was pale, whether from pain or fear Jack had no means of ascertaining, for the boy did not wait to be questioned, but cried piteously,--
”O Hunchie, help me outer this sc.r.a.pe an' I won't ever play tricks on you agin!”
This promise was not necessary to enlist Jack's sympathy.
It was a boy in agony and not an enemy he saw before him; the only question in his mind was how the rescue could be effected.
”Lay still, an' I'll do the best I can; but it may hurt a little more when I try to lift the limb.”
Kneeling that he might get his shoulder under one end of the heavy branch, Jack tried to raise it, but in vain.
He was making the second effort, Bill moaning piteously meanwhile, when Aunt Nancy arrived, and she, like Jack, thought only of relieving suffering.
”Where are you hurt, William?” she asked anxiously.
”I don't know, but it seems as if the ache was all over my body.”
”How did the accident happen?”
”I was choppin' this limb off to build a new raft, an' it fell on me.”
”Can you lift it, Jack dear?”
”I'm afraid not; it's terribly heavy.”
”Let me help you.”
The two strained and tugged all to no purpose, when, as he paused to regain his breath and wipe the perspiration from his face, Jack said,--
”I could cut away part of it if I had an axe.”
”Mine is around here somewhere,” Bill said with a groan.
Jack soon found the tool, and, working very cautiously lest he should cause the sufferer yet more pain, chopped here and there to remove the larger twigs, while Aunt Nancy bathed Bill's pale face with her handkerchief wetted in the pond.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Where are you hurt, William?” asked Aunt Nancy anxiously.--Page 252.]
It required nearly half an hour of the most fatiguing labor to perform the task, and then Jack said as he threw down the axe,--
”When I lift on this end you must try to pull him out, Aunt Nancy.”
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