Dot Kenway stood in the middle of the room, dancing up and down, fluttering her hands and crying over and over again:
“She’s in! She’s in! And it isn’t holding her up! Oh, come quick!”
With a bound Ruth was at her sister’s side. She grasped Dot by the arm and held her still.
“Be quiet, honey, and tell me what the matter is,” Ruth demanded.
“Oh, she’s in! She’s in! And it isn’t holding her up!” Dot repeated.
“We’d better go and see what it is,” suggested Agnes. “Tess may merely have fallen out of bed.”
“Fallen out of bed—this time of day?” cried Ruth. “Impossible!”
But she let go of Dot and sped up the stairs whence floated down a series of startled cries. Agnes followed, while Dot called after them:
“Look in the bathroom! She’s in! It isn’t holding her up!”
To the bathroom rushed Ruth and Agnes, there to behold a sight which first made them gasp and then, instantly, started them into energetic action. For Tess was floundering about in the tub, full of water, with part of her bathing suit on and something bulky tied around her waist. She was clinging to the edge of the tub with both hands and trying to get to her feet. The tub was filled with water, and much of it was splashing over the side. Fortunately the floor of the bathroom was tiled.