They moved down the steps and out onto the long dock. Then it happened. Without a word being spoken Johnson suddenly found himself hanging back down with four grinning huskies holding his hands and feet while another trained a camera on him.
“One,” the crowd shouted as he swung out over the water.
“Two,” the swing was more rapid and he felt that he was gathering momentum.
“Go as far as you like, fellows,” he shouted irrepressibly.
“Three,” and with arms and legs spread wide he circled gracefully far out over the water like a huge heron. He landed with a tremendous splash, disappeared for an instant, and swam laughing back to the dock amidst shouts of side-splitting laughter. Professor Mertz was standing on the bank fairly choking.
“What’s the next stunt?” Johnson asked, laughingly shaking hands all around again. “You put one over on me that time. I suppose you fellows have been lying awake nights preparing a warm reception for me. But come to think of it, you did not know that I was coming.”
It was hard for anyone who did not know the complete harmony existing in the camp to realize that the whole scheme was conceived on the spur of the moment and carried out perfectly without a word. But such was the case. It had occurred to the whole crowd as to one man and they had carried it out spontaneously.
“Well,” Merton said, “you took it like a man, so that is all for the present. The rest depends on you.”
As they came up the slope Scott came tearing down across the campus. When he came out of the cookshack the whole crew had disappeared from the nursery. While he was wondering what had become of them he heard the shouting at the dock but had arrived just too late to see the fun. At the sight of Johnson dripping from every angle and squirting water from his boots at every step he stopped short. “What under the—” he started.
“Oh, yes,” Johnson cried in mock sarcasm, “I suppose this is a great surprise to you. You probably will be asking me next how I got wet.”