CHAPTER XV.
A “BLANK WALL.”
“He’s drowning!” cried Walt in alarmed tones.
“It is just as I feared,” cried Captain Atkinson, “the pony struck a water hole and————”
“Look, there’s the pony now!” cried Walt as the little animal reappeared and began swimming for the bank.
“But where is Ralph?”
Without waiting to make any reply to Captain Atkinson, Walt suddenly wheeled his pony. Down the stream he had seen an arm extended above the muddy current. He knew that it was Ralph’s.
There was no hesitation in the boy’s manner as he turned his pony, and, plunging the spurs in deep, drove him through the water. All at once Walt and his pony floundered into the same hole that had been Ralph’s undoing. At the same instant a sudden swirl of the current caught Ralph, who, though half drowned, was making a brave struggle. The momentary halt was the chance that Captain Atkinson had been looking for.