"Well, make it fast around your body, and then let me have what slack you can. I'll pull on that rope, and have the horse pull on the other, and maybe that'll make it easier for you."
Jack tied the end of the rope about his body, and Hugh took in the slack; then he loosened the lariat, turned his horse so that his head was away from the stream, again fastened the lariat to the saddle horn, and put the sling-rope over his own shoulder; then he called to Jack, "See if you can dig away the sand at all from around the leg that's fast." Jack bent down until his face was under water, and worked hard, scraping away the sand, and again succeeded in getting it down to his knee; then he raised his head again, and called to Hugh, "I've done the best I can, the sand is down to my knee, but it's filling up again."
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll start. You must yell if you feel anything breaking." He bent forward, throwing his weight very slowly against the sling rope, and starting the horse very slowly at the same time. The ropes tightened, Jack was pulled forward until his face was under water, he felt as if he were being cut in two below his arms, as if his legs were being pulled out of their sockets, when suddenly, with a jerk, he flew forward, was buried under the muddy water, and then whirled over and over in it, and a moment later was dragged out on the bank by Hugh, who bent over him with an anxious face. Without a word Hugh lifted him in his arms and put him on the horse, which he led toward the camp. Before they had reached there, Jack had recovered his breath, and said, "Oh, Hugh, I don't think I ever was so glad to see anybody in my life as I was to see you ride in among the horses."
"Well," said Hugh, "I'm glad I got there just when I did. You must have had a pretty bad time while you were stuck there."
"Yes," said Jack, "I don't think I will ever be so near drowning, and yet live."
"You're some cut by them ropes, I see," said Hugh. And Jack, looking down, saw about his body two red, bleeding marks, where the ropes had rubbed his skin off. "Are your legs all right?" continued the old man.
"I think so," said Jack. "One of 'em feels longer than the other, but I can move them both."
"Well," said Hugh, "I ought to have told you not to try to cross this creek; everybody knows it's bad for quicksands, but I ought to have remembered that you didn't know nothing about this country, anyhow."
Hugh lifted Jack out of the saddle and laid him down on one of the mantas, and then unrolled his bed and put him on that.