"See hand too! Look along bark. See fingers!"
Thus directed, the three boys looked, and saw, though but indistinctly, what appeared to be a hand grasping the tree-trunk, a foot, also, was revealed at intervals by the fluttering garment.
After a short, staring silence, a flood of mental light broke upon Joe. "I see now. Why, it's the poor soul we heard cooeeing last night!"
Yes, there had been plenty of speculation in the village as to who it could be, and exactly where the voice came from. None of those who heard the piteous wail that was borne across the floods in the black and wild darkness of that night would forget it for many a long day to come.
The mystery is now solved. The boys are horror-stricken at the sight and its sequent thought. They are now convinced that a woman is fixed in the tree. Without reasoning the matter out, they identify her as the one whose cry over night produced such a sensation in the township, and to locate which the police boat with a strong crew had started out at daybreak, but without success.
Is she alive or dead? The strange cry did not seem to be that of a woman. There was something so eerie, so shocking in the thought, that the lads were fear-possessed for some moments. Joe, as usual, recovered himself first.
"It's a woman sure enough! It's a human being, at any rate. An', boys, we've got to rescue her if she is alive. The cry can only come from her, I'm sure, so that there must be some life left still. How to do it I can't just see at this moment. We must think a bit."
Think a bit they did. Camped as they were at the lower end of the timber, it would be a matter of comparative ease to work up through the trees in the slack water, till they arrived opposite to the clump that stood out in the stream. There the real difficulties would begin. The rush of waters was still so strong, and the space for the play of the boat so small, that it became evident the rescue would be accompanied by some alarming risks.
One of two things must be done: either wait until the waters receded sufficiently to enable the rescuers to wade to the clump, or make an immediate dash.
"How long d'you think it'd be before we could wade across, Joe?"