It came as a shock, then, when all of a sudden Thad started up with a shout, and started on a run toward the edge of the high river bank, where one could look down on the tumbling waters of the churning yeasty rapids.
“Hurry, boys!” the scoutmaster was calling at the top of his voice, as he covered the dozen yards separating the camp from the edge of the little bluff; “Davy went too near the edge, and took a header right over into the river!”
Every one of the other six lads hurried as fast as possible to join their leader on the brink of the bluff; and when they reached there, they saw a sight that for the moment seemed to freeze the very blood in their veins.
CHAPTER II.
WHAT FRIGHTENED THE PACK MULES.
“Hold on to the rock, Davy! We’ll get you out!” whooped Giraffe, greatly excited, so that Thad, believing the tall scout meditated jumping after the boy who was already at the mercy of that swift current, dropped a restraining hand on his arm.
“He must a hit his head when he fell; you c’n see he looks dazed!” cried Bumpus.
“Just what he did, I reckon!” added Bob White, as he clenched his hands, and stared at the figure out in the midst of that rushing, boiling water.
Davy looked far from nimble just then. He was clinging desperately to a slippery moss-covered rock that just projected above the foamy water. If he allowed his grip to slacken he would be instantly carried into a pocket that had all the appearance of a whirlpool; and once lost in that gap, where the water whirled around and around, Davy might never come out alive again.
Under ordinary conditions the agile lad might have had a fair chance to work out his own salvation, for he was a good swimmer; but just as Bumpus said, possibly he had struck his head when falling, and this dazed him. He could only hang on there, and look appealingly toward his comrades, high up on the bank.
Thad saw immediately that the task of rescuing their comrade would prove to be not a little one, even though Davy could hold on for a few minutes longer, which was uncertain, since the current was very strong, and seemed to drag at him with a dozen eager hands.