Not a little to the boys’ astonishment, he now began to draw the raft hastily towards him. He worked as though his life depended on his agility; and as the rope came in hand over hand, it fell in a loose coil at his feet. If the raft had caught on a snag or run into the bank, he would have been left in a sad predicament; for the faster he drew in the rope, the faster Will bounded towards him. It was a strange, exciting race—not a race for life, but a race between meanness and its inevitable punishment.
The three on the opposite bank could not at first guess Bob’s intention. George was undressing himself preparatory to swimming out to the raft; but this manœuvre caused him to desist, and with the other two he stood stupidly gazing at the plotter, eagerly awaiting further developments.
But when the truth dawned upon him, he cheered Will so heartily that all the boys, together with the squirrels and birds, took up the cry, and made the place ring again. In fact, there was danger that all this hubbub might draw on them the wrath of some peace-loving paterfamilias.
Bob had reason to fear that the boys would take dire vengeance if they should overhaul him, and he toiled worthy of a better cause. Yard after yard of the rope passed through his hands, but notwithstanding all his efforts, he saw that Will was gaining on him. Although at his wit send, he yet had the sagacity to pull steadily and not too fast—that might break the rope.
At last the raft was alongside; and having gathered up the folds of the rope,—which he durst not leave behind, because that would put it in the power of Will easily to secure boy, dog, and raft,—he made a desperate and final effort, and sprang almost at random.
At the time of the leap Will was almost upon him.
Bob sprang courageously, but wildly. Alas! “the best-laid schemes of mice and men—” the rest is not English.
The tangled rope in his hands proved his downfall; it coiled round his feet with a merciless grip, and he alighted on the raft in a sorry plight. There he lay, sprawling and struggling, a most ludicrous sight. The more he struggled to free himself, the more tightly he was encircled by the terrible coils. Boys, the youth who becomes entangled in one thousand feet of rope is to be pitied.
To add to his misery, shout after shout of laughter burst from the entire six. Their hour of triumph had, in its turn, come.