Herb, with his feet braced in two deep holes he had dug in the sand, pulled with all his might until Joe’s knees were over the top, thus giving him a purchase. The next instant they had Jimmy up and lying on his back on the bank.
Bob in the meantime, relieved of his care for Jimmy, had got close to the top. Joe rushed to him, caught one of his arms with his two and pulled him off the bridge just as the last support gave way and the whole structure, with a hideous crash, went down into the boiling torrent.
For a little while not one of the boys could speak. They had been engaged in a fight with death and they had conquered only by the narrowest of margins. They were spent and breathless, but above all they were supremely grateful.
When at last they had recovered somewhat, they turned their attention to Jimmy, who had been the greatest sufferer in the events of that never to be forgotten night.
“How are you feeling now?” asked Bob, as he clapped the stout boy affectionately on the shoulder.
“About as though I had been drawn through a knothole,” replied Jimmy, trying to grin. “I’m as sore as an aching tooth all over, but I guess there are no bones broken. I’m bruised most in my feelings, I reckon. Don’t see any signs of my hair having turned white, do you?” he joked.
“No,” laughed Bob. “Though in this darkness I couldn’t tell whether it was white or black. But you went through enough to turn it white, I’ll vouch for that.”
“Not much more than you went through for me,” replied Jimmy gratefully. “I’ll never forget as long as I live, Bob, how you took your life in your hands to come to my help.”
“Oh, forget it,” returned Bob lightly. “It’s just exactly what any one of you fellows would have done for me if I’d been in the same fix. I tell you, Jimmy, our hearts stood still for a minute when we found you weren’t with us.”
“It all happened so quickly that I don’t know just yet how I came to be hanging on to that bit of railing,” said Jimmy. “I can just remember a fearful crash, and then I went tumbling down with the same feeling at the pit of my stomach that you feel when you drop down fast in an elevator. Then the water closed in over me, and I just reached out wildly and caught hold of something and held on for dear life. I called out two or three times before you heard me. The water was making such a fearful racket that it’s a wonder you heard me at all.”