Before the crowd of curious boys reached the spot where Jinks had hurriedly explained the situation to Bill, the two boys and a few of the ball-players had started off along the shore, calling and whistling to the great mongrel dog that was Bill’s beloved and particular care.
The shaggy, tawny hound came crashing from the bushes with tail wagging joyously at the unusual outing he was given that day. When Bill saw him, he snapped his fingers and called excitedly:
“Crummie go in and fetch! Fetch it out, good ol’ doggie!” and at the same time, he threw a stone far out into the lake to attract the dog’s attention to the water.
Crummie went in ker-splash and swam about for a short time looking for the object which his master had thrown for him to bring out again.
“Say, Dutchy, Prunel is too far out for the dog to reach—let’s run along shore till we get to the finger over there. You see, the current runs quite close in to shore there and we can send Crummie out from that spot. Maybe we can tie a rope to his collar and let him swim out with it to the boat, then we can pull the girl in to shore,” quickly explained Jinks.
“Fine! Say you, Dink Brown—run back and get a rope er somethin’ fer us, will you? We’ll be down on that finger waitin’ fer you. Mebbe we kin shout an’ make the kid hear what we want her to do,” replied Bill.
Before he had completed his sentence, Dink was running back to Uncle Ben to ask for a rope. Then the other boys with the dog ran swiftly away to the spot Jinks had designated.
As they ran, Jinks found a section of newspaper on the pathway, and this he caught up and began rolling into a long tube.
“What’s ’at fer?” asked Bill.
“Make a megaphone for us to call through, you know.”