“A rope! We must have a rope!” he cried.
“Where’s Bumpus? Take this rope!” came from Giraffe.
“That’s so; here, get your coat off, Bumpus, in a big hurry!” exclaimed Thad, whirling upon the fat boy, who was even then starting to obey.
Strange to say, as soon as he had undone his loose coat, one of the reasons for his apparent great size through the body became apparent. Bumpus had a small but stout clothes-line wound around his body many times.
While up in Maine he had taken a fancy for having a rope close to his hand. On many occasions he had seen the great value of such a thing; and it had by degrees become almost a mania with Bumpus; who secured just such a rope as he thought best adapted for the purpose, and carefully wound it around his body every morning.
And as the possession of such a thing caused the scoffing scouts to call it a lariat, of course Bumpus was privately and publicly doing his level best to throw the rope, as he had once seen some cowboys connected with a traveling circus do; but with rather poor success thus far, for his build rather unfitted him for doing such strenuous work.
Bumpus was so clumsy about most things that it could not be expected that on the present occasion, when there was so much need of haste he could satisfy the nervous demands of his camp-mates.
He started to unwind the rope, but twice the end fell from his shaking fingers, when he heard Giraffe call out that Davy seemed to be about to let go his hold.
Unable to stand such dilly-dallying tactics, Allan and Giraffe presently took hold of the fat boy, and began to whirl him around as though he were a teetotum, while Thad pulled at the rope.
“Here, quit that!” roared Bumpus, throwing out his hands in an effort to catch hold of something, for he was rapidly growing very dizzy under this treatment; “what d’ye think I am, a top that wants spinning? Hi! ketch me somebody, I’m going to tumble over!” and as the last remnant of the clothes-line slipped from his rotating form, the fat scout did reel around like a drunken man, though quickly recovering from the dizzy sensation.