“Glad to.” Jim took down the receiver and heard the operator.
“Please do not try to use your telephone until further notice, unless the call is very important. The lines are congested. The Selectmen have given orders that no one is to try to cross the bridges—either at the north or south end of North Hero Island. Please tell people on the road they cannot go any further.” The girl repeated the same thing three times to be sure that everybody got it, then there came a click as she closed the connection. Austin gave the message to Mrs. Fenton, who sighed heavily.
“My land sakes alive—there, there, you are almost ready, little fellow. This is a nice baby! Now you can go to your mother.” She hustled the infant to his parents and then hustled back to serve her hungry household. During the meal two serious-faced men came to the house.
“We heard that your nephews dragged in a family that might have been drowned, Fent,” one of them started.
“Yes they did,” Mr. Fenton admitted and introduced the boys to the men, who shook hands gravely.
“I’ve heard that there are some families stranded on the islands, and it may be that some of the summer colonies have suffered just as that family you brought in. We were wondering if you will help us get any others, if there are any. We have several good strong power boats, but we would waste a great deal of time trying to locate people and might not find them all.”
“If you will fly around and watch for signal fires or flags, then we could send the boats directly and take them off,” the other added.
“Of course we’ll be mighty glad to help,” Bob declared promptly.
“Thank you. Another thing, there may be some who haven’t had much to eat for a couple of days, not being able to use their boats. Could you drop food to them?”
“Sure thing,” Jim replied. “We’ll take some weights along because we don’t usually carry anything like that. We just happened to have one this morning or we might not have been able to give that fellow a tow.”