Ronnie got up and came around to kneel by Bill’s feet. He swallowed hard. This was going to be a real tricky job—straightening out Bill’s leg without compounding the fracture. Ronnie had done it plenty of times in practice, but then there had been no broken bones that could jab through the flesh if he made a wrong move.
He reached in under the raincoat and felt his way forward until he could get a hold on Bill’s shoe. When he was ready, he instructed Phil to grasp Bill around the armpits and to lift him gradually. As the weight of Bill’s body was removed from the leg, Ronnie took a firm grip about Bill’s ankle and began the slow, tedious task of straightening the leg. All the time he moved the leg out from under his friend’s body, he applied a steady forward tension to keep the broken bone from working into the flesh. Several times Bill cried out in pain.
Now the leg was ready for splinting. Ronnie selected several of the longer boards. He ripped sections from his own shirt and placed these against Bill’s leg and laid the boards gently on top. Then he tore strips of cloth and bound them about the boards and the leg until the splints were firmly in place.
Only then did he realize that he was soaking wet from perspiration and that he was shivering from nervous tension. “There,” he said to Bill, “I guess that’ll hold you until we get rescued.”
Bill smiled weakly. “Thanks, pal,” he said.
Ronnie turned to his brother. “Think we can carry him back to the spot where we came in?”
“We probably can,” Phil answered, “but I don’t think we ought to. You see, the river’s risen since you were there, and that part of the tunnel’s under a foot of water now.”
Ronnie tried desperately not to let Bill know how frightened he was. “Then—then we’ll put Bill up on that shelf where the crates of glassware used to be.”
“O.K.,” Phil answered. “That sounds like a good idea, because it isn’t going to be long before the whole culvert’s covered with water. It’s coming in fast!”
Ronnie wished his brother could see his face so Phil would know what he was thinking. Of all the stupid things to let Bill hear! It would be simple for Ronnie and Phil to climb to a safe level in the crawl space beneath the building, but never in a million years could they get Bill up there. And Bill wouldn’t know, of course, that Ronnie would never leave him behind—no matter how high the water rose.