“Hold on with your legs!” shouted Ed.
Then a long, spear-like splinter was thrust at him like a lance. He dodged just in time, and the splinter flew over his back. Again and again the whirling logs nearly crushed their legs. But at last only two feet of open water intervened between them and the log on which lay the victim of the jam.
As they were hesitating, the butt of another log was driven into the space and for the moment wedged fast. In an instant Ed had thrown himself across it to the log that supported Brundage. Quickly he crawled to the prostrate figure, and, placing his hands beneath the powerful shoulders, he tried to pull the man from his perilous position. In an instant George reached his side. After much effort they managed, between them, to lift “Shorty” from the water and drag him some distance along the slippery log over which they had come.
No sooner had they removed him than two great logs were lifted by the water and sent crashing down upon the very log across which his unconscious form had lain.
Lifting, pulling, and tugging with all their strength, Ed and George managed, somehow, to crawl over the wet logs, dragging “Shorty” with them. They had many narrow escapes, but at last the bank was reached. Pulling their man up beyond the reach of the angry river, they dropped beside him, too exhausted to move.
Then Ben, who, as he was returning, had seen the whole daring rescue, rushed breathlessly down the bank and hugged both boys in his arms.
“You fellows are the real thing!” he cried to the blushing boys. “You’ve got sand, and you know when to use it. That was one of the pluckiest pieces of work I ever saw done.”
“What’s—the—matter?” asked Brundage, feebly, opening his eyes and staring about him in bewilderment.
“The matter is that the jam came powerful near getting you, ‘Shorty.’ It would have got you, too, only for these young fellows. They got to you, somehow, and, what’s more wonderful, they got back and brought you with them! That splintered log out there, the one with the three big ones lying across it, is the log you were on,” said Ben.
The “lumber-jack” passed his hand weakly across his forehead, blinked, and sat up. He beckoned the boys to come close; and when they had done so, he reached up and grasped their hands.